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SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 



EDITED BY 

Rev. D. WISE D.D., axd Rev. J. H. VINCENT. 



*to $0rk: 



PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER, 

8UNDAY-8CHOOL UNION, 200 MULBEBBY-8TBEET. 



V 



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5" 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, 

BY CARLTON & PORTER, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
the Southern District of New-York. 



PEEFATOEY NOTE. 



-++■ 



Here we propose to publish all manner of 
wholesome and profitable suggestions, practical 
hints, illustrative incidents and quotations, model 
lessons, home helps, institute exercises, etc., etc., 
for the use of pastors, Sunday-school superintend- 
ents, officers, teachers, pupils of the normal 
classes, parents, and all others interested in the 
great work of sacred education. 

Should this work receive anything like the cor- 
dial welcome from those for whom it is prepared, 
that we have hoped, it shall in due time be followed 
by another, and still another, that earnest Sunday- 
school laborers may be supplied with the tools and 
the materials they need, and that thus the cause we 
so ardently love may be abundantly prospered. 

New York, July, 1866. 



CONTENTS. 



■++- 



PAGE 

Neglected Country Neighborhoods— "Work for Earn- 
est Sunday-school Men 1 

College Students as Sunday-school Teachers 11 

Sunday-school Excursions 12 

superindendent and his duties 15 

Communication between Superintendents and Teach- 
ers, a Plan for 20 

Reward Character, not Attainments 23 

Country Sunday-schools in Winter 24 

We Educate the Heart 25 

The Pastor the Teacher of Teachers 29 

I)ont Like the Superintendent. 32 

Live for Something 36 

Teacher's Honor, The 3*7 

Teacher's Work, The 3*7 

Little While, A 38 

Childhood 39 

Laugh of a Child 41 

Sunday-school Teacher, Why am I a 42 

Bad Teacher, First Lesson from a 44 

My Class for Jesus. 45 

Seven Short Rules for Sunday-school Teachers 46 

Earnest Teacher in his Study 4*7 

Earnest Teacher in his Closet 47 

Earnest Teacher in School 48 

My Teacher Visited me only Once 49 

Absence from School Improved 50 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I wont go to Sunday-school to-day 51 

Don't be Always Don'ting 53 

How to have a Small Class 55 

Give Facts to Children 56 

We Belongs to You 58 

Teacher's Chair a Center op Influence 59 

Visit your Scholars 60 

Catechism, The 62 

Passion for Soul Saving 64 

Impatient Teacher Rebuked 65 

Kind Looking Teacher, The 66 

What I ha.ve Seen 67 

Art of Telling a Story 69 

Bad Boy Conquered by Love 11 

Children must be Converted .* T4 

Influence of Parental Piety 16 

Best Word in all the Bible *76 

Early Conversion 11 

OUR GREAT GrOD IS 

Picture Studies for a Sunday-school Class Si 

Female Ornaments in the Orient 92 

Rock in the Yalley of El Ghor 98 

Sunday-school Institute, The 100 

Class Names, Mottoes, and Emblems 109 

Bible Geography on the Blackboard 112 

Bible Geography in Song Hi 



OUR 

SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK, 



^»»«» 



NEGLECTED COUNTRY NEIGHBORHOOD-WORK 
FOR EARNEST SUNDAY-SCHOOL MEN. 

The rapid development of villages and towns in 
our older states, with the growth of our Churches 
in those communities, has very generally led to 
the breaking up of our old-fashioned circuits into 
stations. Instead of three or four Sabbath preach- 
ing places, as our fathers generally had in charge, 
our pastors now have but one. Instead of a scat- 
tered membership diffused over from two to half a 
dozen townships, they now have the care of a 
hundred or two concentrated within the limits of 
a single village. The centralization of society in 
towns has localized the labors of our ministry, 
and confined a pastor's labors within a very small 
circle. 

This is a necessary result of our denominational 
prosperity. We rejoice over it. It is gratifying 
both to our Christian and Church affections to ob- 
serve the growth of these village Churches, with 
their enlarged numbers, increased refinement, 



8 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

wealth, and influence. But there is a shadow on 
the background of this picture, which cannot be 
studied without awakening regret and anxiety in 
the heart of every earnest Methodist. 

Carefully analyzed, this shadow resolves itself 
into numerous little clusters of population scat- 
tered over the face of the country which lies be- 
tween the towns and villages. These neighbor- 
hoods are created by various causes. A small fac- 
tory, a store, a tavern, a school-house, a coal mine, 
a railroad station, and even a saw or grist mill, 
are the nuclei around which they collect. They 
are not large enough to form congregations and 
Churches, nor near enough to the villages to wor- 
ship in them. The consequence is that they neg- 
lect public worship altogether. In many of the 
states these neighborhoods are so numerous that 
their aggregates constitute an alarming number 
when brought into the category of religiously des- 
titute populations. The Christian philanthropist 
contemplates them with pain and anxiety. 

Now under our ancient circuit system these lit- 
tle neighborhoods would have had the gospel 
preached to them. The incumbent of a four 
weeks' circuit, mounted on his faithful horse, 
threaded every road included in his territory, and 
established at least a week-night appointment in 
every accessible community, large enough when 
brought together to fill a school-house or farm- 
house kitchen. But to many a stationed pastor 
who spends his two years in the village this out- 
lying country is almost a terra incognita. His 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 9 

time, thoughts, and labors are absorbed in caring 
for the interests of his village Church. Week- 
night appointments in the " country " do not enter 
into his plans. And thus it comes to pass that 
our Methodism, which formerly wrought such won- 
ders in sparse populations, is now scarcely felt in 
many of them. Thousands of souls dwell between 
the villages in which her stately temples rise, who 
never hear the gospel from the lips of her minis- 
try — in many, many instances never hear it at all. 
" No man careth for their souls." Painful fact ! 
What is the remedy ? 

If village pastors and Churches would regard 
the country around them as missionary ground, 
and make systematic provision for its cultivation, 
there need not be a neglected population in any 
tolerably well-settled state in the land. 

This proposition is too self-evident to require 
proof. Evidently, if our village Churches were 
animated by a fixed purpose to provide for the 
adjacent country, they could, by the joint efforts of 
the laity and pastorate, establish Sunday-schools, 
prayer-meetings, and occasional preaching, in every 
small community within ten miles of their bound- 
aries. 

If I were asked how a particular Church should 
proceed in this work, I would reply : 

1. Let the pastor and leading laymen talk over 
the matter as a question of love and duty to 
Jesus, until they are prepared to take up the 
work seriously, earnestly, enthusiastically; then 
let them bring it before the Church, and inspire 



10 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

the membership generally with their ideas and 
feelings. 

2. Let the pastor, with a committee from his 
board, explore the country for miles around, select 
one or more of the most promising points for oper- 
ations, and report the result to the board and 
Church. 

3. Having determined on the locality to be oc- 
cupied, let the pastor and his committee visit it, 
and make arrangements for opening a Sunday- 
school by procuring a suitable room and canvass- 
ing the neighborhood for scholars. This could be 
readily done on a week-day afternoon. 

4. These arrangements being made, volunteer 
teachers should be called for, a superintendent be 
appointed, books and requisites obtained, (by ap- 
plication to our Sunday-School Union or otherwise,) 
and a conveyance regularly provided, at the ex- 
pense of the Church, to take the teachers to their 
field of labor. The hour for holding the school 
should, if practicable, be such as not to inter- 
fere with the most important services at the home 
church. 

5. As soon as the circumstances would justify 
a week-day service, preaching or prayer-meeting 
should be established. Occasionally a village 
Church might profitably dispense with their pas- 
tor's services at the Sabbath prayer-meeting, so 
that he might preach at the locality of the Sunday- 
school. 

Who will affirm that all this is not practicable 
by an earnest Church ? Who can doubt that the 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 11 

spiritual life and philanthropic ability of any 
Church would soon be doubled by such action ? 
Who cannot see that such action by our village 
Churches generally would speedily cure that wart 
on our civilization — a religiously destitute country 
community ? See to it, then, ye village pastors, 
and ye noble-hearted laymen of village churches, 
that your out-lying territory is cultivated, and 
made to blossom as the rose. See to it for Christ's, 
the people's, and their children's sake. 

This subject is respectfully submitted to the 
consideration of presiding elders, and to preachers 
for discussion at district preachers' meetings. 



COLLEGE STUDENTS AS SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
TEACHERS. 

Among the five hundred students at different times 
connected with the Jesus Lane Sunday-school 
(Oxford, England) as teachers, many are men- 
tioned who stood high in literary attainments, 
" It was encouraging," say the committee in refer- 
ence to one of these, " to see one who had already 
carried off several college prizes, and whom high 
aoademical honors awaited, finding spiritual re- 
freshment and relaxation in leading the tender 
lambs of the flock to the Shepherd and Bishop of 
souls." 

It has been thought by some that the engage- 
ments of a Sunday-school teacher are adverse to 



12 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

academical success, and that scarcely any men of 
high university standing have employed the hours 
of the Sabbath in this work. The records of Jesus 
Lane Sunday-school show that this opinion is with- 
out foundation. Between the years 182 7, in which 
the school was commenced, and 1835, two hundred 
and forty-three of the teachers graduated with 
honors ; and of that number the names of one 
hundred and two were found in the first class of 
the mathematical or of the classical tripos. 



SUNDAY- SCHOOL EXCURSIONS. 

An excursion, especially from the crowded city to 
the green woods or pleasant fields, is a pleasant 
thing, provided it be rightly managed. There is 
something benevolent, too, in the idea of taking 
the children of poverty from heated attics, and 
swarming, mephitic streets, down the flowing riv- 
er and across the rippling bay, to spend a day 
under heaven's broad canopy and in the untainted 
air. It may be well, too, for children to associate 
a day of innocent pleasure with the institution 
which is their religious educator. All this we 
concede to a Sunday-school excursion in the ab- 
stract. 

Now our ideal excursion supposes that the spir- 
it of the institution it represents be embodied in 
it. Constituted authority, order, cheerfulness, 
moderation, and piety preside over it. Unknown 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 13 

and irresponsible persons, amusements of doubtful 
character, roystering and license, are excluded 
from it. Its participants, young and old, are all 
known to the officers or teachers, are submissive 
in all things to the conductors of the school, at- 
tend the religious exercises proper to the occa- 
sion, and go home feeling that they have spent 
both a pleasant and profitable day — profitable to 
the body, cheering to their flagging spirits, and 
encouraging to their religious aspirations. 

Now if our city Sunday-school excursions are 
of this character, we wish to be counted among 
their advocates and supporters, albeit we have 
little or no time to attend them. But are they ? 
Can a large city Sunday-school get up and con- 
duct an excursion in that spirit of cheerful Chris- 
tianity which should characterize every gathering 
of a Sunday-school ? That's the question. Breth- 
ren familiar with these excursions can best an- 
swer it. 

We have heard of excursions preceded by the 
indiscriminate peddling of tickets by the children 
on the Sabbath, so as to make the affair a paying 
one to the school, and attended by swarms of dis- 
orderly youths, boys defiant of all authority, shout- 
ing and rushing round the boat or barge like wild 
Indians, to the discomfort of nervous ladies and 
the terror of little girls. We have heard of ex- 
cursions at which " Copenhagen " and similar silly 
games, whose only charm is in the kissing which 
accompanies them, were the staple amusements of 
the day ; at which romping, fiddling, and dancing 



14 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

were tolerated ; where the swinging was monopo- 
lized by rude, romping girls ; and from which re- 
ligion was wholly excluded. We do not affirm 
that these abuses are general, or that they have 
occurred in connection with the schools of our 
Church, or that they are inseparable from excur- 
sions. We only affirm that such things have been 
described to us, and that we have in our lifetime 
witnessed some of them, very much to our grief 
and mortification. We need hardly add, that to 
excursions at which any or all of these abuses 
are tolerated we are decidedly hostile. They 
are unchristian, demoralizing, destructive of the 
very aims for which our Sunday-schools are or- 
ganized. 

To our schools which will have excursions we 
add a few cautions. Beware of these abuses. 
Don't turn the house of God into a house of mer- 
chandise, nor transform your pupils into peddlers, 
in your endeavors to raise the needful funds. Do 
secular work on secular days. Don't let unknown 
persons attend your excursion. Satan often min- 
gles with the sons of God. Beware of him on 
excursion days ! Allow no disorder before start- 
ing, on the boat, or in the cars. Banish silly 
games from the ground. Tolerate nothing in 
speech or act that tends to excite a blush on the 
cheek of modesty. Give your children something 
to do. Let them do the speaking and singing. 
They will enjoy the day far better than they can 
by playing all the time. Encourage cheerfulness. 
Discourage levity and boisterous fun. In short, 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 15 

conduct the excursion in harmony with the follow- 
ing principles : 1. Let not your good be evil spok- 
en of. 2. Avoid doing evil that good may come. 
3. Let all things be done decently and in order. 



THE SUPEBINTEOENT MJ) HIS DUTIES. 

Officially, the Sunday-school superintendent is 
the soul of the system, the spirit of the body with 
which he is connected. On the amount of his in- 
telligence, piety, activity, and mental qualifica- 
tions much depends. To a great extent, what he 
is the school will be; what he does will most 
likely give tone for good or evil to the body of 
teachers over whose movements he is called to 
watch and to preside ; his views will be very likely 
to influence, to a very large extent, (if he be es- 
teemed as he ought to deserve to be esteemed,) 
the views of those teachers, more especially the 
younger portion ; and his doings and shortcomings 
will modify the whole character of the school and 
those associated with it. 

If his heart is warm, glowing, devotional, zeal- 
ous, burning with love to souls, with fervent de- 
sire for the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom, 
and especially for the conversion of the young, 
then there is likely to be vitality, religious earn- 
estness, a spirit of prayer, a seeking and longing 
for the spiritual interests of the children, charac- 
terizing the efforts of the teachers, and there 



16 OUR SUNDAY- SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

will be a blessed atmosphere, of piety and religion 
evidently pervading the school, and influencing the 
hearts both of teachers and taught. 

If he be a man of energy and activity, there 
will be vigor and corresponding activity infused 
into the operations of the teachers, and the gen- 
eral conduct of the school. Not only will suit- 
able plans be devised, but they will be effectually 
and perseveringly carried out to their accomplish- 
ment, either by himself or the secretary. And if 
he be a man of prudence, the plans and arrange- 
ments of the school are likely to be wise and 
judicious, and such as the particular necessities 
of the school he is called to superintend may 
require. 

If qualifications such as these distinguish or 
characterize a superintendent of a school, they 
cannot fail to exert an influence ; for, generally 
speaking, he will most likely gather around him 
and attract to his school spirits somewhat similar 
to himself, to associate in holy fellowship and to 
co-operate in holy labors. But if he be the re- 
verse of all or any of these things, or if there be 
a glaring and manifest deficiency in all or any of 
these things, then there is likely, there is almost 
sure, to be a corresponding effect upon the influ- 
ence and character of the school generally, as 
well as upon the individual classes and teachers. 
The whole tone of the school will be lowered, 
the results will be unsatisfactory, and the relig- 
ious element brought down to a cold, chilling 
temperature. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 17 



WHAT A SUPERINTENDENT SHOULD BE. 

A superintendent should be, 1. A man of piety 
and settled Christian principles ; 2. A man of in- 
telligence, information, and prudence ; 3. A man 
of punctuality and business habits ; 4. A man 
whose heart is thoroughly in the Sabbath-school 
work; 5. Well acquainted with Sabbath-schools; 
6. A man of tact and ready resources ; 7. A man 
of perseverance, and of steady habits of mind and 
action ; 8. A man of conciliating spirit. 

WHAT A SUPERINTENDENT OUGHT TO DO. 

First, he ought to superintend the school, to 
watch over and maintain the general conducting 
of the school. However capable he may be of 
teaching a class, (and we have no hesitation in 
saying that he ought to be able to teach in any 
class — senior, Scripture, or infant ; for how else 
could he know that the various operations of the 
school were being conducted in a satisfactory 
manner ?) yet we say it is not his business to sit 
down in a class and teach. 

The nature of his office determines that his du- 
ties are of a more general and extended nature. 
In a certain sense we may say that the teachers 
are his class, and he should see that they are each 
and all up to the mark, and doing their several 
parts in the school. Like the officer in the army, 
his duty is to see that all others are doing their 
duty, and as far as possible take care that every 
hinderance is removed out of their way, and every 



18 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

facility afforded, having his eye upon the whole 
school, and his mind familiar with all its various 
engagements. He should prevent irregularities, 
or correct them when they occur, and see to the 
steady and harmonious working of the entire 
machinery, meeting and dealing with circumstan- 
ces as they arise, with wisdom, prudence, kindness, 
firmness, as their nature may require. 

He is the person to conduct or control the gen- 
eral religious services of the school, and provide 
that the singing and devotional exercises and 
addresses are carried on in the most satisfactory 
and profitable manner that can be attained ; not 
engrossing all these duties himself, but so arrang- 
ing them as to call into use all the available tal- 
ent of the school, and encouraging younger breth- 
ren in the exercise of their gifts, at the same 
time keeping over them an official but kindly 
control. 

He too has to settle the sometimes delicate 
matter of the appointment of teachers to classes, 
(unless provided for by some special law of the 
school,) and all changes becoming necessary in 
consequence of a teacher's removal from the 
school. He too should preside, in the absence of 
the pastor, at the prayer-meetings, teachers' 
meetings, etc. In short, whatever of a general 
or administrative character there is to do in 
or for the school, the superintendent should be 
more or less ready to do or say. The burden 
of the school may be said to rest on his shoulders, 
and he should not shrink from doing anything 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 19 

in his power that may be for its advantage, for 
the comfort of the teachers, or the benefit of the 
children. 

What he ought to do ! Well, he ought to set an 
example to the whole school. This he surely will 
do ; but what we mean is that he should present 
one which it would be well for them to follow ; 
an example of early and regular attendance, of 
seriousness of deportment, of earnestness of spirit, 
of devotedness to the work, of purity of purpose, 
of thrilling devotion, of spiritual anxiety, of untir- 
ing zeal, of holy forbearance, of patient persever- 
ance, of Christian affection, of self-renunciation, 
of diligent preparation, of unwearying effort for 
the good of the school and the promotion of all 
its interests. If it be possible, he should be at 
every meeting of the school or teachers; he 
should lead them on in every attempt, cheer them 
in every difficulty, and encourage them under 
every disappointment, ever holding up to their 
minds the greatness and glory of the work in 
which they are engaged, the object at which they 
should aim, and the blessed (though undeserved) 
reward which every faithful teacher shall at last 
attain. 

But he oughts as far as in him lies, to take every 
opportunity of watching over and promoting the 
personal piety and spiritual profit of especially the 
younger portion of the teachers. Many young 
Christians, even while laboring for the good of 
the children, themselves want the wise direction, 
the tender counsel, the cheering word, the encour- 



20 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

aging sympathy, the sustaining influence which 
more advanced years and a larger experience 
could so often impart. And how could a super- 
intendent be more effectually doing his work, bet- 
ter assisting the teachers, or securing their confi- 
dence and esteem, than by a kindly, faithful 
Christian concern for their personal religious wel- 
fare, meeting their doubts, removing their difficul- 
ties, urging on their progress, seeking to lead 
them on to higher attainments in religion, and 
greater adaptedness for usefulness in the work in 
which they are engaged ? 

These are parts of the work which we think 
every superintendent ought to do, and in doing 
which he would find a great reward. 



A PLAIT FOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SUPER- 
INTENDENTS AND TEACHERS. 

Gektleme^, — I am desirous of bringing before 
your notice a plan which has been adopted in 
our school with great success ; and being so sim- 
ple, I feel sure it will commend itself to every 
superintendent who, like myself, has felt the want 
which it endeavors to supply. 

W e had long felt that there was not sufficient 
means of communication between the teachers 
and their superintendent, the latter being so busy 
during the whole of school-time on Sunday, and 
his time taken up with such a variety of little 



OUK SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCKAP-BOOK. 21 

matters, that the teachers had but few opportu- 
nities of speaking to him in private, and bringing 
before his notice many things they might wish 
with reference to their classes. At last it was 
suggested, " If we cannot find an opportunity of 
speaking to our superintendent, why cannot we 
write down what we wish to say, and thus draw 
his attention to anything we want him to notice ? " 
The hint was acted upon at once ; a small blank 
ruled book was procured, and the following direc- 
tions written on the title-page : 

Sunday-school. Teachers' Suggestion Book. 

You are requested to write only on the left hand page, leav- 
ing the other for the superintendent's reply; also always to 
give the date, and the number of the class. 

This book lies on the superintendent's desk, and 
may be used at any time during morning or after- 
noon school. 

We now got on famously ; the teachers were 
no longer afraid of " troubling " the superintend- 
ent ; the children were not left to amuse themselves 
while the teacher was gone to "speak to the 
superintendent," as one child could always be 
sent to ask for the " Suggestion Book ;" and I may 
also add, that many things can be entered in this 
book which the teachers might perhaps hesitate 
to say by word of mouth. 

I submit two or three specimens, taken at ran- 
dom, of the suggestions offered ; and the fact of 
the book being so frequently used, is a proof of its 
due appreciation by the teachers. 



22 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 



teachers' suggestions. 
June—, 1860. CI. 2.— The 
habit of bringing fruit and 
sweetmeats to school seems 
sadly increasing. Will the 
superintendent speak very 
strongly both to teachers and 
children on the subject? 

June, — CI. 8.— M. F. very 
naughty; said several bad 
words, and very disobedient. 



superintendent's reply. 
I will do so next Sunday. 
Will the teachers tell me of 
any child who persists in eat- 
ing after having been told to 
stop? 



I have had a quiet talk with 
M. She professes sorrow, and 
promises to behave better. 
Will the teacher separate her 
as much as possible from A. 
and B., and if she ever uses 
bad language again, tell me of 
it at the time ? 



June, CI. 4,— The children 
say to me sometimes, " What With pleasure. 

is the good of giving money to 
the Missionary-box ? we do not 
get any good by it." Will 
you kindly answer this ques- 
tion in your address ? 



Thank you for the sugges- 
tion. I should much like it, 
and will bring it before the 
teachers at our next meeting. 



June, — . CI. 4. — Do you not 
think that much of the sad 
indifference of the children to 
spiritual things may be owing 
to our so seldom uniting in 
praying for them? Would it 
not be possible to stay in a few 
minutes after school for that 
purpose ? 



This last suggestion was acted upon, and every 

Sunday evening, as soon as the children have 

left the school-room, the teachers gather together 

and unite in prayer for a blessing on their labors. 

A Young Superintendent. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 23 



REWARD CHARACTER, KOT ATTAINMENTS. 

A rewaed for specified mental tasks can never be 
made equal or just, because the power to perform 
such tasks is nowhere equally distributed. Fifty 
verses are more easily committed to memory by 
one child than five by another. Where, then, is 
the justice of rewarding the former and not the 
latter? 

Rewards for external performances are not mor- 
ally safe. " Say your prayers properly and I will 
give you an orange," said a thoughtless mother to 
her child one day. Would not such a reward be 
a stimulant to hypocrisy rather than to piety ? Is 
it not so with all rewards given for performances 
which to be right must be the choice of the will ? 

Rewards for exhibitions of right character be- 
long to a better category. A dull child, who, by 
an evident effort, masters a lesson, displays dili- 
gence, perseverance, and a purpose to master him- 
self, may be very properly rewarded as an encour- 
agement to continue in well doing. So when a 
restless child is still and orderly in obedience to 
rule, or a passionate child is calm under provoca- 
tion, or a vain child rejects an ornament lest it 
should excite its vanity, or a self-willed child 
schools itself into submission, it may be safe to 
give a reward. In such cases the reward recog- 
nizes character ; it encourages the recipient in his 



24 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

struggle after the good, the beautiful, the true ; 
it is the wages of right action. 

Rewards are given too profusely, and with too 
little discrimination, in many schools. In such 
cases they injure character instead of improving 
it. It is better not to reward at all than to reward 
thus. We commend thoughtful Sunday-school of- 
ficers to study the philosophy of reward systems. 



DO NOT LET THE COUNTRY SCHOOLS GO DOWN 
DURING THE WINTER. 

It is, to be sure, a motto as true as it is old, that 
" half a loaf is better than no bread." But upon 
the same principle a whole loaf is twice as good as 
the half. I know what you are ready to say. 
" Your house is hard to warm," " Tour children 
are scattered," "The days are short," "Tour 
teachers cannot be induced to come," " The par- 
ents object," etc., etc. Well, now, to all this we 
reply : Think of the worth of souls ! remember 
the shortness of life ! think of that awful eternity 
which is so near ! and will you let such objections 
interfere with the great work you have in hand ? 
Besides, your house can be warmed, and your 
children can be gathered, upon the week day^ and 
why not upon the Sabbath ? In how many school 
districts throughout the land are the Sunday- 
schools abandoned in the winter, when in those 
very places the very same children go to the secu- 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 25 

lar school five days out of every seven, and not a 
word of objection is heard ? Keep up the country 
schools the year round, say we, and God will give 
you the blessing. 

Superintendents and teachers of country schools : 

It may not "be your lot to wield 
The sickle in the crowded field ; 
Not yours to hear on summer eves 
The reaper's song 'mid thick'ning sheaves, 
" Yet where your duty's task is wrought 
In unison with God's great thought," 
Know thou that there the Master's eye 
Surveys your work approvingly ; 
Smiles on your task with sweetest grace, 
Though humble and obscure your place. 
Faint not ; the orown is only won 
Through patient toil, through duties done ; 
Know then that thou shalt stand ere long 
Amid that grand triumphant throng, 
And hear the sweet, the welcome word 
Which calls you to your dearest Lord. 
Pray on ; time flies ; the end is near ; 
One more short week, or month, or year, 
And then the song, the orown, the palm, 
Awarded by the approving Lamb. 



WE EDUCATE THE HEART. 

" We educate the heaet " should be the motto of 
Sunday-school teachers, because heart education is 
pre-eminently the work of the Sunday-school. 
We do not say the Sunday teacher should neglect 
the intellectual culture of his pupils ; because the 
forces by which he hopes to move and mould the 
heart are contained in ideas, which must be first 



26 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCKAP-BOOK. 

comprehended by the intellect before they can be 
felt by the heart. What we wish to impress on 
the Sunday teacher is, that brain culture must be 
subsidiary to heart culture in the Sunday-school. 
To draw out the latent power of the intellect is 
the function of the secular school; to draw out 
and direct the affections and powers of the moral 
nature, or heart, is the peculiar function of the 
Sunday-school. 

To make a perfect man we must educate his 
physical, mental, and moral natures. The three 
cultures would be united in a perfect system of 
education, because the three natures are so related 
that one cannot be neglected without injury to 
the others. A sound mind in a sound body, and 
inspired by a good heart, is our ideal man. To 
neglect a child's physical education is to enfeeble 
his intellect and endanger his heart. To neglect 
his intellectual powers is to dwarf his capacities 
and limit his moral powers. To neglect his moral 
education is to doom him to the destiny of beast 
or devil, as the animal or intellectual may happen 
to predominate in him. Hence neither should be 
neglected. The parent should provide for the 
first, the State for the second, and the Church, by 
means of the Sunday-school, for the third. Albeit 
the wise Christian parent will not neglect either. 

It may be said the state should provide for all. 
If society were perfect it would do so. As it is, 
it certainly does not, and probably will not until 
the millennium. Respect is had to some of the 
laws of physical culture in the public school, and 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 27 

also to the great principles of morality and reli- 
gion ; but still its chief provision and aim is the 
brain. It is a fact not to be overlooked, that the 
public school never aimed less at the education of 
the heart than now. What with the imperious 
claims of Romanism on the one side, and the 
clamors of skepticism on the other, it is compelled 
to be more secular and less moral and religious 
than ever. This tendency toward the absolutely 
secular is likely to continue. The heart will be 
less and less cultivated. However we may regret 
this, we must accept it as one of the evils of lib- 
eral institutions, and provide a remedy elsewhere? 

Again, it should be carefully noted that the 
children of this country will be more and more 
generally brain- educated. Secular schools will be 
multiplied and improved, secular teachers will be 
more highly trained, and brain culture will con- 
stantly increase. 

Now if this is permitted without a correspond- 
ing increase and improvement of heart education, 
what will be the result ? What will it give the 
nation ? Power certainly — power to invent, to 
construct, to expand, to grow rich, to conquer, to 
rule ; but it will be power without principle, with- 
out conscientiousness, without magnanimity, with- 
out benevolence, without purity. It will be power 
guided by selfish passions, and will, therefore, as in 
the great but corrupt nations of antiquity, be a 
curse to its possessors and a scourge to mankind. 

What will such power do for the individual ? 
Enrich him, give him influence over weaker men ? 



28 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

Yes, all this, and perhaps more. But what is such 
power worth ? Is not the obscurest man in Amer- 
ica, whose heart is right with God, better off than 
he who fills a senatorial or presidential chair, but 
neither fears God nor knows how to govern his 
own passions ? Is not the " Well done, good and 
faithful servant," addressed to a man saved with- 
out much brain-power, worth infinitely more than 
to miss that greeting and die crying, " I am a mill- 
ionaire," or " I die in the seat of power ? " As- 
suredly brain culture without heart culture may 
make men resemble devils, but it cannot do them 
real good. 

Let us then apply ourselves as Sunday teachers 
to our appropriate vocation — the education of the 
heart. By teaching the claims of God, and the 
doctrine of responsibility, conscientiousness will 
be developed, and the scholar will learn to fear 
God, and to respect the rights of his fellow-crea- 
tures. By a proper representation of the divine 
fatherhood, and of the gift of Jesus, the affections 
will be drawn out toward God, and love and faith 
be born. This is what is meant by heart educa- 
tion. It is planting the idea of God in the con- 
science and in the affections, believing that the 
Holy Ghost will make the idea the germ of spirit- 
ual life in the soul of the scholar. Aim at this 
therefore, O Sunday teachers, in all your teaching. 
Believe me, that the manifestation in your scholar 
of a clearer perception of moral distinctions, of 
increasing respect for the claims of conscience, of 
sensibility to revealed truth, or of tender regard 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 29 

for the person of Jesus, is better evidence of your 
real success than the verbal recitation of the entire 
Bible, or a thorough mastery of the geography of 
the holy lands. The latter are well enough, and 
desirable where they can be obtained ; but they are 
not the ends of your vocation. The former are 
the results which you are specially called to seek 
as educators of the heart. 



THE PASTOR AS THE TEACHER OF TEACHERS. 

1. The Sunday-school teacher is the preacher's 
assistant. What the preacher preaches in the 
pulpit, the teacher illustrates, enforces, and applies 
personally to the pupil. 

2. The Sunday-school teacher is the pastor's as- 
sistant. He visits the homes of the Church for 
and in aid of the pastor. Knowing from three to 
eight families of the congregation, and having a 
hearty welcome there, through the children of 
these families, he visits them in the name of the 
Saviour, the Church, the Sunday-school, and the 
pastor. His is a religious mission. Twenty such 
teachers, visiting one hundred families a quarter, 
may do the pastor as well as the people a great 
service. 

3. In relations like these, and for such labor, our 
teachers need teaching. I am sorry to believe that 
too many of them need a large amount of teach- 
ing to make them appeeciate the dignity and im- 



30 OUR SUKDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

portance of their office. And certainly they can- 
not perform its twofold work of teaching and 
visitation without intellectual culture and spiritual 
experience. 

4. Since the Sunday-school teacher is the pastor's 
assistant, and since his efforts may so effectually 
supplement the efforts of the pulpit, to whom, if 
not to the pastor, shall the Sunday-school teacher 
look for assistance. The pastor is, ex officio, the 
teacher of his teachers. He is their professor of 
biblical interpretation and systematic theology. 

5. The minister should, therefore, be a thorough 
biblical scholar. If he has been trained in a theo- 
logical seminary he should not despise, so as to 
forget the rudiments of that training. If he never 
enjoyed these advantages, he should spend some 
time every day in making up for the earlier defi- 
ciencies. An hour or two a day, systematically 
devoted to reading and study, with reference to 
this acquisition, will in two or three years enable 
him to consult the original of the Old and New 
Testaments, make him familiar with sacred archae- 
ology in its several branches, and with all else 
that appertains to biblical interpretation. The 
fact that he prosecutes these studies in order to 
teach, and the constant effort at simplifying and 
systematizing his knowledge, will make it doubly 
valuable to him, and more than compensate for 
the failure of his earlier years. 

6. The minister should know something about 
methods and systems of teaching. The principles 
and plans of sacred education are substantially the 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 31 

same as those recognized and employed in the 
secular schools. He should study and master 
them. He should visit the best public, model, and 
normal schools, and take part in the institutes held 
so commonly by the teachers of our land. At 
least one of the educational periodicals should find 
its way regularly to his table. 

7. The minister should be a Sunday-school man. 
He need not feel " above it." It will not prove 
detrimental to his reputation or efficiency. The 
Rev. Dr. Tyng is no less acceptable as a pastor, 
preacher, or theologian, because he is pre-eminently 
a Sunday-school man. The apostles were not 
ashamed of the first sentence of their pastoral 
commission — Feed my lambs. It was no stain on 
their parchment. Nor did the apostolic dignity 
suffer loss by the faithful performance of the duty. 
Jesus, if in the flesh to-day, would be a Sunday- 
school man. I have always been charmed with 
the picture of the old pastor, drawn by Bishop 
Tegner, and so exquisitely translated by Longfel- 
low. It occurs in " The Children of the Lord's 
Supper :" 

" Friendly the teacher stood, like an angel of light there among 

them, 
And to the children explained he the holy, the highest in few 

words, 
Thorough, yet simple and clear, for sublimity always is simple ; 
Both in sermon and song a child can seize on its meaning.' ' 

We want more Sunday-school men in the min- 
istry — men who understand the ecclesiastical rela- 
tions and practical workings of the system, who 



32 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

have faith in it, love it, and have consecrated 
themselves to it. The pastor should be in the 
Sunday-school every Sabbath. He should preach 
often to his children. He should regularly attend 
and conduct the weekly teacher's meeting — so far, 
at least, as to superintend the study of the lesson. 
He should " read up " in Sunday-school matters, 
subscribe for, carefully peruse, preserve, and bind 
the Sunday-School Journal, form a library of 
books and other publications devoted to Sunday- 
school discussions, and attend Sunday-school con- 
ventions and institutes when occasion offers. 

8. In some form a normal or training class for 
Sunday-school teachers should be brought within 
the reach of every school. The pastor is responsi- 
ble for the organization and conduct of the class. 
If he has patience, ingenuity, zeal, he can make it 
one of the most efficient appliances of his Church. 



"DOFT LIKE THE SUPERINTENDENT." 

BY REV. ALFRED TAYLOR. 

Mr. Lag is displeased with the superintendent. 
He considers that official to be a harsh, exacting, 
tyrannical, unreasonable sort of person, and in 
most respects a disgrace to the station he fills. 
He thinks that if a change is not made, he would 
not like to be answerable for what will become of 
the school. 

For the twenty-fourth time within the last six 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 33 

months, the boots of Mr. Lag are heard to creak 
in the vestibule of the school just after the open- 
ing exercises have begun. And for the twenty- 
fourth time in six months the tardy gentleman 
finds himself unable to effect an entrance into the 
school-room, by reason of the enforcement of the 
rule which requires that the door shall be fastened 
during the opening exercises, in order to prevent 
the disturbance which the coming in of the Lag 
family would occasion. Mr. Lag allows an unhap- 
py company of thoughts to find entertainment in 
his brain during the time of his brief sojourn in 
the vestibule. Thoughts denunciatory of the rule 
under which he is suffering, of the unreasonable- 
ness of the superintendent in enforcing the same, 
and of the school generally, usurp the place of 
those lovely and peaceable ones which should oc- 
cupy the mind of one wha is about to communicate 
to others the truths of the gospel. 

The exercises are presently over, and the door 
is unbolted, that Mr. Lag may march in. He en- 
ters with an air of down-trodden blamelessness. 
If the superintendent would but apply to himself 
the sermon of reproach which is written on Lag's 
countenance, he would at once step up to that 
gentleman and make reparation for the injury done 
him in fastening him out. The woe begone visage 
seems to say that its owner is the father of a large 
family of children, and therefore could not be ex- 
pected to come as punctually as bachelors and 
single women can come ; that he was occupied till 
the moment of starting from home in searching 



34 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCKAP-BOOK. 

for his Bible, his question-book, and his class-book, 
and that allowance should therefore be made for 
him ; that he could not have come sooner without 
debarring himself the enjoyment and nourishment 
derived from eating some pudding which was 
served up as a supplement to his dinner ; that it 
is a great favor for him to come at all ; and that 
he is the victim of a severe attack of rheumatism, 
caused by his repeated exposure in the vestibule. 

The superintendent (heartless man) is cruel 
enough not to consider Mr. Lag's apologies and 
complaints any mitigation of his offense in thus 
habitually being a nuisance to the school. He 
has been heard to say that if people don't like 
being locked out, they ought to make their ar- 
rangements to come a little earlier. 

Mr. Lag has several other reasons for entertain- 
ing a poor opinion of the Superintendent. As 
they are all of the same family of reasons, how- 
ever, one of them will do for the present. 

Mr. Superintendent is making a short speech; a 
telling one ; earnest, and to the point. It is on 
the subject of thorough study. He is enforcing 
both on scholars and teachers the necessity and 
the duty of being well prepared with the lesson. 
The better to illustrate his meaning, and to enforce 
his doctrine, he suggests the case of a teacher who 
would come to his class entirely unprepared as to 
the lesson, and whose scholars should discover his 
ignorance, and take advantage of it. Now it so 
happens that Mr. Lag was under the painful neces- 
sity of asking his boys where to-day's lesson is, 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 35 

thereby revealing to them a lack of acquaintance 
with it which provoked their mirthfulness. As 
the superintendent alludes to the subject, little 
dreaming how closely the cap fits a certain gentle- 
man present, sly winks and stealthy nudges are 
indulged in by these boys, to the great annoyance 
of Mr. Lag, whose extreme sensitiveness on this 
point renders him so watchful as to discover what 
the boys might otherwise be able to conceal He 
considers the superintendent culpably personal, 
and says that he is evidently becoming insane. 

It never occurs to our unfortunate friend that he 
is at all at fault in the matter of his tardiness, his 
failure to study the lesson, or any of his other 
shortcomings. It does appear to him that he is a 
deeply injured man. When the superintendent 
touches on any of these things, or when the rules 
of the school present themselves as obstacles in 
the way of his laxity and carelessness, he calls the 
superintendent a tyrant, and the rules scandalous 
stumbling-blocks. 

Lag has been in several Sunday-schools during 
the last few years, but has not been happy in any 
of them. He says he does not like the superin- 
tendents, as a general thing. He seems to consider 
himself the victim of a conspiracy on the part of 
superintendents and such people. 

The superintendents do not like Mr. Lag much 
better than he likes them. They consider him a 
standing nuisance, and shed no tears when he 
leaves. 

If Mr. Lag will wake up a little earlier in the 



36 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

morning, and stay wide awake all day, he will be 
astonished to find how much better he and the 
Superintendent will like each other. — The S. S. 
Teacher. 



LIYE FOR SOMETHING. 

Live for something ; be not idle ; 

Look about thee for employ ; 
Sit not down to useless dreaming ; 

Labor is the sweetest joy. 
Folded hands are ever weary, 

Selfish hearts are never gay ; 
Life for thee hath many duties ; 

Active be, then, while you may. 

Scatter blessings in thy pathway ; 

Gentle words and cheering smiles ' 
Better are than gold and silver 

With their grief-dispelling wiles. 
As the pleasant sunshine falleth 

Ever on the grateful earth, 
So let sympathy and kindness 

Gladden well the darkened hearth. 

Hearts there are oppressed and weary ; 

Drop the tear of sympathy ; 
Whisper words of hope and comfort ; 

Give, and thy reward shall be 
Joy unto thy soul returning 

From this perfect fountain-head ; 
Freely as thou freely givest 

Shall the grateful light be sbed. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 37 



THE TEACHER'S HONOR. 

The angel choir his praise may chant in rapturous songs 

above, 
And through the universe his power adoringly proclaim ; 
But they can never win for Christ a child's first ardent love 
Nor whisper in an infant's ear the Saviour's precious 

name. 
O happy teacher ! to whose trust this glorious work is 

given, 
A work unshared by those who dwell amid the joys of 

heaven. 

u Feed, feed my lambs ! " in all its sweet persuasiveness 
to-day, 
This message from a Saviour's lips, O Christian, reach- 
es thee. 

Ask not, " And what shall others do ? " but help without 
delay, 
To train the children of your class in peace and purity. 

And though, perchance, thou may'st not call earth's fad- 
ing laurel thine, 

Yet, bright as stars that gem night's brows, thou shalt 
forever shine. 



THE TEACHER'S WORK. 

Some lambs are missed from Jesus' fold, 
And straying far from home ; 

'Mid forests dark, and streams so cold, 
The little lambs now roam. 



38 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

Some gems to deck our Master's crown 

Are buried now on earth ; 
Rich gems, whose luster sin doth drown, 

But still of priceless worth. 

Some harps are needed in his choir, 
Harps struck by infant hands ; 

And tongues to sing with youthful fire 
To swell those hymning bands. 

To seek those lambs and lead them back ; 

To find each sin-marred gem ; 
To guide them to the heavenly track, 

Fit for Christ's diadem ; 

To tune those infant tongues to sing 
Redemption's song in heaven ; 

This is the work our loving King 
To us on earth hath given. 



"A LITTLE WHILE." 

And is it so ? A little while, 

And then the life undying, 
The light of God's unclouded smile, 

The singing for the sighing ! 
A little while / O glorious word, 

Sweet solace of our sorrow ; 
And then, "forever with the Lord," 

The everlasting morrow. 

Then be it ours to journey on 
In paths that he decrees us ; 

Where his own feet before have gone, 
Our strength, our hope, our Jesus. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 39 

In lowly fellowship with him 

The cross appointed bearing ; 
For, O ! a crown no grief can dim 

One day we shall be wearing. 



" A little ichile" and he shall come, 

Light of our eyes, our longing ; 
His own voice bids us welcome home, 

And we his people thronging, 
Shall rest our hearts in his embrace, 

Dear refuge ! ours forever ; 
Look upward to his blessed face, 

And fear its hiding never. 



CHILDHOOD. 

Beautiful, beautiful childhood with a joy 
That like a robe is palpable, and flung out 
By your every motion ! delicate bud 
Of the immortal flower that will unfold 
And come to its maturity in heaven ! 
I weep your earthly glory. 'Tis a light 
Lent to the newborn spirit, that goes out 
With the first idle wind. It is the leaf 
Fresh flung upon the river, that will dance 
Upon the wave that stealeth out its life, 
Then sink of its own heaviness. — Willis. 

Who shall preserve thee, beautiful child? 

Keep thee as thou art now ? 
Bring thee a spirit undefiled, 

At God's pure throne to bow ? 



40 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

The world is but a broken reed, 

And life is early dim ; 
Who shall be near thee in thy need, 

To lead thee up to Him ? 
He who himself was " undefiled," 
With Mm we trust thee, beautiful child ! 

Willis. 

Like the new moon thy life appears, 

A little strip of silver light, 

And widening outward into night, 
The shadowy disk of future* years, 

A prophecy and intimation, 

A pale and feeble adumbration 
Of the great world of light that lies 
Behind all human destinies. — Longfellow. 

He smiles and sleeps — sleep on, 
And smile, thou little, young inheritor 
Of a world scarce less young ; sleep on and smile ! 
Thine are the hours and days when both are cheering 
And innocent ! — Bybon. 

But thou wilt burst this transient sleep, 

And thou wilt wake, my babe, to weep ; 

The tenant of a frail abode, 

Thy tears must flow as mine have flowed : 

Beguiled by follies every day, 

Sorrow must wash the fault away, 

And thou may'st wake perchance to prove 

The pang of unrequited love. — Bybon. 

Take care of the children, nor wasted 
Is care on the weakest of these ; 

The culturer the product has tasted, 
And found it the palate to please. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 41 

There are sheaves pushing higher and faster, 
And age has more branches and roots; 

But dearer are none to the Master 

Than childhood in blossoms and fruits. 

W. B. Tappan. 

Heaven lies about us in our infancy. — Wordsworth. 

The history of paradise 

To woman's faith is clear, 
For happy childhood ever brings 

The Eden vision near. — Mrs. S. J. Hale. 

O holy is the sway 
Of that mysterious sense which bids us bend 
Toward the young souls now clothed in helpless clay : 

Fragile beginnings of a mighty end — 
Angels unwinged — which human care must tend 
Till they can tread the world's rough path alone. 

Serve for themselves or in themselves offend. 
But God o'erlooketh all from his high throne, 
And sees, with eyes benign, their weakness and our 
own. — Mrs. Norton. 



THE LAUGH OF A CHILD. 

" I love it, I love it — the laugh of a child ; 
Now rippling and gentle, now merry and wild ; 
Ringing out in the air with its innocent gush, 
Like the thrill of a bird at the twilight's soft hush ; 
Floating up in the breeze like the tones of a bell, 
Or the music that dwells in the heart of a shell ; 
O the laugh of a child, so wild and so free, 
Is the merriest sound in the world ^or me." 



42 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 



WHY AM I A SUNDAY- SCHOOL TEACHER? 

Why am I a Sunday-school teacher ? What are 
my motives ? What aim have I ? 

I propose these questions to the one hundred 
and fifty thousand persons which compose the 
teaching force of our Church. Should each one 
press them faithfully home upon his conscience 
what sort of answers would be given ? 

Would not a multitude be compelled to reply, 
" We really don't know ? We never thought of 
asking ourselves such questions?" 

Would not a second class answer, "We teach 
because we were teased to do so by our friends ? " 

Would not a third class respond, "We teach 
because our particular friends are teachers ? " 

Would not a fourth class say, " We teach be" 
cause it is customary for young people to be 
teachers in Sunday-school ? " 

Would not a fifth class have to reply, "We 
teach because the work introduces us to agreeable 
society ? " 

Would not a sixth, though, I trust, a very small 
class, say, "We teach because it helps to pass 
away the Sabbath ? " 

Teacher, which of these replies would your 
conscience compel you to make? No matter 
which. They are all too low to meet the high 
demands your office has upon you. With motives 



OUK SUA DAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 43 

and aims such as these, you cannot be a good, 
successful Sunday-school teacher. 

" What should be my motives and aims ? " do 
you inquire? Your motives should be the con- 
straining love of Christ and a genuine love of 
souls. These grand affections should be the great 
springs and forces inclining you to occupy the 
teacher's chair. 

You aim should be the conversion of your schol- 
ars. To make real Christians of your pupils 
should be the end of all your teaching and disci- 
pline. What the goal was to the ancient athlete, 
what his port is to a seaman, what Mecca is to a 
Mohammedan pilgrim, the conversion of your 
scholars should be to you. In all your prepara- 
tions, your instructions, your intercourse with 
them, this object should stand out in full, clear, 
well-rounded outline before your mental eye. 
For this you should study, pray, agonize, and 
teach. For this purpose chiefly has divine provi- 
dence brought these children within the circle of 
your influence. 

"But," replies a teacher belonging to one of the 
six classes above enumerated, "I have no such 
motives or aims. What shall I do ? " Get them, 
my friend. Review the question calmly, until 
you feel the pressure of your duty to rise to the 
full standard of a Christian teacher to be too great 
for resistance. Then consecrate yourself to your 
work, praying for that baptism of heavenly love 
which inspired Paul, Luther, Wesley, Asbury, 
Raikes, and which now inspires every true worker 



44 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

for souls. Thus endowed with power from on 
high, set the conversion of your scholars before 
you as the mark to be hit by your teaching, and 
you will be such a teacher as Christ can smile 
upon. Persevere in this spirit and you will be 
successful. 



THE FIRST LESSON FROM A BAD TEACHER. 

" I have a distinct remembrance of the first lesson 
I learned in the school," said Mr. Walton to his 
neighbor, Mr. Gal way, who was spending a por- 
tion of the evening with him ; " but it was not 
the kind of lesson that my little girl asked about." 

" What was it ? * said Mr. Galway. 

" It was a lesson in falsehood." 

" You don't mean that you learned to lie the first 
day you went to school ? " 

" No, but I learned that there was such a thing 
as falsehood in others." 

" That was a lesson that you could not learn too 
soon." 

" I can't say that I agree with you. I count it 
a great blessing that I never saw an instance of 
duplicity in my father's family. I did not know 
there was such a thing among grown-up people till 
I went to school. I think I was all the better for 
my ignorance." 

" What was the lesson ? " 

" As I was on my way to the school-house I 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 45 

passed the teacher and a lady who inquired how 
her son was doing. The teacher told her, her son 
was * doing well — very well, indeed.' In course of 
the day the teacher said to one of the boys, as he 
failed to spell the word put to him, ' John Ellis, 
you are the most indolent and worst-behaved boy 
in school. I saw your mother this morning, and I 
had a great mind to tell her what kind of a boy 
you are. I will do so if you don't do better.' 
The lesson made a very deep impression on me. I 
never trusted that teacher. When he told me 
about the lessons, I never felt sure that I could 
trust him. I know that we must learn to distrust, 
but it is a lesson which it is not desirable for the 
young mind to learn too soon." 

How careful should all be not to give the young 
lessons of distrust ! 



MY CLASS FOR JESUS! 

My class for Jesus ! This should be the watch- 
word of every teacher. As Fremont's body-guard 
recently plunged into victorious battle shouting, 
" Fremont and the Union," so the teacher should 
enter upon his work saying, " My class for Je- 
sus ! " And ever when his thoughts turn to his 
youthful charge this watchword should swell his 
heart. 

My class for Jesus ! What an expressive bat- 
tle-cry ! It suggests the precious relation in which 
Jesus stands to the members of the class. Why 



46 OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

are they for Jesus ? Why, indeed ! Are they 
not his lambs ? Did he not, like a faithful shep- 
herd, die to save them? They are his by the 
costliest purchase price. He bought them with 
his blood. How fitting, then, that the teacher 
should forever cry, " My class for Jesus ! " 

My class for Jesus ! This battle-cry also ex- 
presses purpose in the teacher to bring his class 
into a saving relation to Christ. By it he says, 
"I will so teach my little ones that, grace assist- 
ing, they shall believe in and love Jesus. My 
soul is set on this. I will consecrate all my pow- 
ers to this object — to make these children Chris- 
tians indeed." 

My class for Jesus ! O blessed battle-cry ! 
Would that every one of the one hundred and fifty 
thousand teachers in our Church would take it up 
in right good earnest. Would that it might pass 
from lip to lip, and from school to school, until our 
entire teaching corps blended their voices in one 
glad shout of " Our classes are all for Jesus ! " 



SEVEN SHORT RULES FOR SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
TEACHERS. 

1. Speak little and softly. 

2. Preserve perfect order in your class. 

3. Avoid unnecessary words. 

4. Be hot over-quick to notice and reprove little 
faults ; it irritates rather than mends. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 47 

5. Stop or change your course when attention 
flags, or is maintained with difficulty. 

6. Turn the eye of the pupil inward upon him- 
self, and teach him how to read his own heart. 

7. Pray with and for your pupils. 



THE EARNEST TEACHER IE HIS STUDY. 

It is easy to know an earnest man when we see 
him as a teacher. His features are well developed. 
He has his characteristics; you may view them 
in his study. Do not be startled at the word ; he 
has his study. The place, the time, the method, 
the object, are all matters of great moment with 
him. Tou will not find him on the Sabbath morn- 
ing undecided as to the subject for the day; that 
is fixed long before, arranged, pondered, thought 
over ; the plan of his campaign is well marked 
out, nor will he offer unto God that which costs 
him nothing. 



THE EARNEST TEACHER IN HIS CLOSET. 

The closet bears witness to the earnestness of the 
teacher. See, you cannot be mistaken; how he 
paces the room ; he is rapt in thought. What a 
solemn countenance, what a weight of responsibil- 
ity, what a sense of insufficiency. His lips move, 



48 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

he is in God's presence ; he thinks he is alone with 
him ; he bends his knee. Hark ! can you hear his 
voice ? what is it ? the voice of prayer. O how 
earnest ! He puts one in mind of Jacob ; how he 
wrestles ; " and being in an agony, he prays more 
earnestly." What think you, will he prevail? 
He pleads the name of Jesus, and God, his God, 
doth bless him. Now is his face lit up with joy, 
and he begins to sing, " I will go in the strength 
of the Lord God." This is the earnest teacher ; 
we cannot be mistaken; "he travails in birth for 
souls." 



THE EAMEST TEACHER IN SCHOOL. 

Behold the earnest teacher in school ! He is 
there in time. He will not be behind ; he makes 
it a point of conscience ; he thinks of his example. 
Besides, he loves his work, and goes with cheerful 
feet, because his heart is there. You shall not find 
him slothful; the clock has not struck, yet he is 
in his place ; the greeting look has gone around, 
his fellow-teachers feel the shine. He is not too 
late to sing, not he ; his soul is all on fire : look at 
him while he sings, then hear his voice in prayer. 
Ah, he would not miss that service ; it nerves him 
for the day. But now the school is opened, yet he 
has regard to order. See him conduct his class ; 
he makes me think of Jesus ; he goeth before 
them and leadeth them out, he knoweth them and 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 40 

they follow him. Now look at him in his class. 
His face indicates, his glance, his eye, his manner, 
his voice, his method. See, he has a single eye, a 
glorious object, a dauntless spirit. The whole 
atmosphere of the school is permeated ; his fellow- 
teachers feel the glow ; his class feel it, and they 
show it ; they carry it to their very homes. The 
tear of penitence drops, the eye of faith is opened, 
the soul immortal is renewed ; for God will bless 
that teacher's labors, and give him a rich harvest. 



u 



MY TEACHER VISITED ME ONLY OHCE." 



In the course of my pastoral visiting a few days 
since I called at the residence of one of the mem- 
bers of my Church, and was admitted by a little 
girl of some twelve years of age, and of pleasing 
address and more than ordinary intelligence. Be- 
fore the mother (who was indisposed) made her 
appearance we had a very interesting conversation. 

" How is your health ? " I inquired. 

" Better, I thank you," she replied. 

" Have you been sick ? " 

u I have been lame for three months, and obliged 
to walk with a crutch. I am now just able to walk 
without it." 

" Why, you had a serious time of it." 

" Yes ; and don't you think, my Sunday-school 
teacher has been to see me only once. I don't 
like that much." 



50 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

" Perhaps she did not know you were sick." 
" She did ; she was here just after I fell." 
" No doubt she will be glad to see you back in 
school again." 

" Well (hesitating) I suppose so." h. b. b. 



ABSENCE FROM SCHOOL IMPROVED. 

In my recent readings among Sunday-school mag- 
azines I noted a communication from a teacher 
with which I was well pleased. He stated that 
being sometimes obliged to spend a Sabbath or two 
from home, it was his habit while away to write a 
weekly letter to his scholars. Before leaving home 
he informs his class of his purpose, and appoints one 
of his best behaved scholars to call at his residence 
for the letters, which are mailed under cover to 
some member of his family. The letters are read 
to the class either by the teacher supplying in his 
absence or by one of the scholars. The effect of 
the plan is excellent. It secures the attendance of 
the children, increases their attachment to their 
teacher, and furnishes him an opportunity to 
impress many great truths on their hearts and 
memories. 

Ah, thought I, on reading this good man's arti- 
cle, that man is a true shepherd. The spirit of 
his Master is in him, for he evidently cares for the 
"lambs" intrusted to his keeping. He differs 
amazingly from those teachers who absent them- 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 51 

selves on slight pretexts without notice and with- 
out anxiety. Would that all our teachers possessed 
his spirit ! 

But is not his practice worth a trial ? The season 
for absenteeism from the cities may be approaching. 
Scores of classes in our city schools will soon be 
deprived of their regular teachers. Perhaps the 
reader intends to leave his class for a sojourn in 
the country. If so, suppose you give the plan a 
trial, my friend. Write a brief letter to your class 
every week. Write of what you see and do in 
the country, especially of what you see of children 
and Sunday-school. Write them a few words from 
the heart about their salvation. Propose Scripture 
questions, to be answered by them on your return. 
Only give your heart to the business and you will 
find it easy, very easy, to write such letters as will 
profit both yourself and your pupils. 

Should any of my readers follow this hint I 
should like to be informed of the results so far as 
they may be apparent. 



"I WONT GO TO SMDAY-SCHOOL TO-DAY." 

" Dear me, how the wind blows this morning. I 
guess I wont go to Sunday-school to-day." 

Thus mused a teacher one wintry morning as, 
yielding to a self-indulgent impulse, he threw 
himself into a cosy chair before the cheerful grate 
and composed himself for a nice spell at reading. 



52 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

Before he was fairly seated, however, the images 
of his six expectant scholars rose in lifelike forms 
before his imagination, and a voice from his affec- 
tions said : 

" Poor things ! how disappointed they will be if 
they don't find you at school." 

" Yes," added his conscience, " and how discour- 
aged they will be too after walking through the 
cold. This and the force of your example will be 
likely to make them absentees the next unpleasant 
morning." 

" Humph ! That's so, I suppose ; but then one 
cannot be always swinging like a door on its hinges 
between his home and his Sunday-school," replied 
his selfishness. 

Without regarding this pettish remark, con- 
science proceeded : 

" Your absence will embarrass the superintendent. 
How can he supply your place without deranging 
the order of the school while hunting up a substi- 
tute ? Moreover, you will lose an opportunity to 
serve your Master. Your scholars may be in 
that state of mind to-day which best fits them 
to be led to Christ? And will you not injure 
yourself by yielding to a lazy, self-indulgent feel- 
ing, instead of being governed by your sense of 
duty ? " 

" I am afraid it's so ; but, dear me, how the wind 
whistles," pleaded self again. 

" Your obligation will be violated if you stay 
at home," resumed conscience, " for are you not 
virtually pledged to attend every Sabbath if pos- 



OUR SUNDAF- SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 53 

sible ? Can you be absent without offending or at 
least grieving your Saviour ? " 

These last words touched the heart of the teacher. 
Closing his book, he rose, and in firm tones said, 
" I'll go ! " He went, did his work, spent a pleas- 
ant, useful day, and at night reflected that he 
would not be afraid to meet the record of that 
Sabbath at the judgment. 

Friend teacher, is this a passage from your ex- 
perience ? Has conscience always triumphed over 
self-love and kept you punctual ? Happy man ! 
Work on and wait a while ; your reward is sure. 
To the often absent teacher, who allows self-love 
to triumph over conscience and the affections, I 
have only to say, please read over again the ar- 
guments of conscience in the above sketch, and 
inquire how those Sabbaths on which you are 
marked absent on the roll-book will appear in the 
judgment. 



a 



DOFT BE ALWAYS DOFTItfG." 



" DonH be always donating!" This was the 
favorite precept of an educator in his addresses to 
teachers. Interpreted it means, " Don't be always 
reproving your scholars," and is worth being put 
into every teacher's mental pocket, to be ready, 
like small change, for frequent use. 

Don't laugh ! Don't talk ! DonH shuffle your 
feet ! DonH be so lazy ! DonH put your hand on 



54 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

Charley's shoulder ! These and a score of similar 
dortts are forever tripping from the tongues of 
some teachers. They hit every fault they dis- 
cover in their pupils with one of these sharp-edged 
donHs. A looker-on might imagine that the art 
of winning the affections of children lies in the 
power to say donH, or that this formidable word 
contains a magic power to transform thoughtless 
children into diligent, well-behaved students of 
holy writ. And yet, that looker-on needs but to 
look a little longer to learn that this pragmatical 
Mr. Don't is a creator of disorder, a stirrer-up of 
pettishness and ill-temper, and a very pestilent 
fellow at the best. 

"Don't be always donHing" then, friend teach- 
er. Reprove as seldom as possible. Reproof, like 
a rod, in hourly use, loses its power for good, and 
is more mischievous than the evil it would correct. 
The eye, vivid with an expression of grief at the 
child's misconduct, is the best of reprovers for the 
ordinary foibles of children. It will usually quiet 
the disorderly pupil, and leave no bad mark behind. 

Let a teacher be lively and interesting ; let him 
keep his pupils busy; let him encourage his schol- 
ars to diligence by words of cheer ; let him check 
the idler by a well-directed question; let him 
exert the full power of his eye ; let him choose to 
be blind to many trivial offenses, remembering 
that much of the restlessness of children is the in- 
voluntary offworking of their exuberant activity, 
and is not to be treated as a moral fault, and he 
will be surprised how little occasion he will find 



OUK SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 55 

for " donHing" and how easily his class is kept in 
order. 

Willful misconduct should be corrected by pri- 
vate admonition rather than by public reproof. 
Five minutes' affectionate expostulation in private 
is worth more as a curative than a thousand pub- 
lic reproofs. 

Sunday-school teachers need the patience of 
love, and the wisdom that cometh through prayer, 
to govern well. But these gifts, precious though 
they be, are within the reach of the humblest. Is 
is not written, "If any man lack wisdom, let him 
ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and 
upbraideth not ? " 



HOW TO HAVE A SMALL CLASS. 

1. Be irregular in your attendance. If the day 
is hot, stay at home; if it is cold, stay in your 
warm parlor ; if it rains, be sure not to go out. By 
this means your scholars will soon learn that you 
are a broken reed, not to be depended on, and 
your class will grow " small by degrees, and beau- 
tifully less." 

2. Don't study the lesson. Keep your brain as 
much like an empty gourd-shell as possible. Tour 
scholars will soon learn to estimate you at your 
true value, and quit your class. 

3. Be dull. Talk as though to be a Dry as- 
dust was the height of your ambition, and your 



56 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK 

pupils will soon find a way to relieve themselves 
of your instruction. 

4. Be tedious. Bore your class with long talks 
until the bell rings, and they will cease to bore 
you with your presence. 

5. Manifest no interest in your scholars. Nev- 
er visit their homes. Never enter into their joys 
or sorrows. Be an automaton to them, and they 
will soon become absentees to you. 



GIVE TRACTS TO CHILDREN. 

Yes, give tracts to children. Is not the heart 
of a child better soil for the good seed than the 
stony spirit of a hardened adult ? Let the follow- 
ing fact, gathered from the pages of a London 
magazine, encourage the Christian laborer to give 
tracts to the children. 

A pious nobleman, while spending a few days 
at his mansion in the country, went about the 
adjacent villages circulating tracts and speaking 
words for Jesus to the villagers. One day he 
saw a group of girls at play in the street. Hav 
ing learned not to despise the heart of a child, he 
gave each girl a tract and passed on. 

One year from that time he was again in that 
village, when he was earnestly requested to visit 
a poor cobbler's dying daughter. Like a true dis- 
ciple he went, and his lordly feet were led through 



OUR SUKD AY- SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 57 

the cobbler's stall up a pair of rickety stairs to 
tlie bedside of a girl not fourteen years old. 

After a few kind words he said, " Tou sent for 
me, my dear ; have you any request to make ? " 

" Yes, my lord. I thought I should die more 
happily if I could see you and thank you for the 
good you once did me by giving me a little tract." 

" When ? " inquired his lordship. 

" About a year ago. I was a foolish girl then, 
and was playing with other girls when you gave 
us each a tract. Because it was given me by a 
gentleman I thought I must read it. It made me 
very unhappy ; so one day I resolved to do just 
what the tract said I ought to do. I did so, and 
I cannot tell you how happy I have been ever 
since. Here is the tract, sir." 

The nobleman took the well-worn tract from 
her skinny fingers. It was called " The Happy 
Choice." He smiled and said : 

" Then you have made the happy choice ? " 

" O yes ! Jesus is very precious to me, and ever 
since I gave him my heart I have been as happy 
as I could be." 

" I am glad to hear you speak so, and glad you 
sent for me ; but what is the request you wish to 
make ? " 

"It is that you will never give up the good 
work of giving away tracts, and that you will 
give them to children as well as to grown-up peo- 
ple. I never thought any one would give me a 
tract ; but when you gave me one I felt that some 
one cared for poor girls, and I afterward thought 



58 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

that if a kind gentleman cared for us perhaps 
God did so too. So I went on from one thought 
to another, until I gave myself up to Christ, and 
then I began trying to get others to love him too." 

The nobleman learned on inquiry that this 
child of fourteen years had not only lived a pure 
life herself, but had been the means of reforming 
her parents, and changing her home from a den 
of "wickedness into a spiritual little paradise. 

And this, all this, was the fruit of a tract given 
to a giddy little girl by a British peer. Give 
tracts to children then, O Christian teacher! 
They may finish the work your words have al- 
ready begun, and so help you to place the souls 
of redeemed children among the stars which are 
to deck the crown of your rejoicing. Give tracts 
to children! 



4( 



WE BELONGS TO YOU." 



" Please, sir, w;e belongs to you, and you belongs 
to us," said a poor boy to his teacher one Sunday. 
The boy's phrase was homely, but by it he un- 
consciously pronounced a very high compliment 
upon his teacher. He showed that the teacher 
had won the friendship of his pupils and was rec- 
ognized by them as their friend. He had forged 
a golden heart-link, by which he and his class were 
indissolubly joined together. Boys who feel they 
belong to their teacher, and that their teacher be- 



OUE SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCBAP-BOOK. 59 

longs to them, will be very likely to follow his 
guidance and be led by him to the cross. 

How is it, brother teacher, with you and your 
class ? Have you so established yourself in their 
affections that their hearts say, if they do not so 
express it, ** We belong to you and you belong to 
us ? " If not, there is something wrong in your- 
self. Tou do not love them, or, if you do, you fail 
to demonstrate your love skillfully. Remember, 
u love begets love," and if you exhibit a true and 
a loving friendship for your pupils they will assur- 
edly recognize it and give you back love for love — 
with very rare exceptions. 



THE TEACHER'S CHAIR A CENTER OF INFLUENCE. 

If it be true that " a place in the Church, from 
which the streams of influence naturally flow," is 
a center of influence, then a Sunday-school teach- 
er's chair is such a center. There are other centers 
more elevated, more imposing, more tempting to 
ambition, and acting more directly on a wider 
sphere ; but assuredly the broad earth contains no 
position from which influence proceeds more natur. 
ally, certainly, and effectually than from a teacher's 
chair. 

Look at it. Six impressible, curious, unpreju- 
diced immortal spirits look up to it every week for 
ideas, impressions, and spiritual guidance. They 
open every door of access down to their innermost 



60 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

natures, and permit its occupant to impress them 
as he may will, up to the full measure of his power. 
Is there any other center of influence which gives 
such free admission to the sanctuary of the human 
spirit ? 

Who can measure the extent to which influence 
may possibly radiate from the teacher's chair? 
Should it lead all or a part of those six children 
to Christ its duration will be unlimited. But may 
not that class contain at least one nascent Page, 
Carvosso, Olin, Hedding, Huntingdon, or Fletcher ? 
one man or woman of power who will by and by 
repeat the influence of the chair until it be multi- 
plied a hundredfold ? Thus is it not likely to be 
a center of influence to thousands ? 

Yes, the teacher's chair is a center of mighty, 
far-extending influences. Prize it, ye who fill it, 
prize it highly. Work in it diligently. Solemnly 
vow that, God helping you, not one of your charge 
shall ever swell the ranks of wickedness. Ply the 
truth and the power of prayer so vigorously that 
your six pupils shall become not Christians merely, 
but Christians of the highest style. 



VISIT TOUR SCHOLARS. 

Do you wish to add a little to the sum total of 
happiness in the great human family, teacher ? If 
so, visit your scholars at their homes. Your pres- 
ence there will be like a beam of light in a gloomy 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 61 

chamber, both to your scholars and their parents, 
especially if they are poor. They make act awk- 
wardly and seem distant to you, through being 
unused to callers out of their own narrow circle ; 
but you will leave a track of light behind you. 
The parents will be gratified, the children de- 
lighted, and your visit, like the passage of a gon- 
dola over a quiet lake, will leave a ripple in its 
wake that will be a joy for many days in the 
household. Therefore, if you wish to increase the 
happiness of the world a little, do this little deed 
of love. Visit your scholars ! 

Do you desire an opportunity to sow the seed 
of truth and love in some neglected spot of heart- 
soil? Then visit your scholars at their homes. 
Many of them have mothers, toiling along life's 
rough pathway, uncomforted by words of love and 
consolation, to whom your visit may be as the 
presence of an angel. Tour interest in her child 
will be as a love-link between you, and will give 
you access to her affections. Your words will not 
be forgotten. They may allure her to the house 
of God, to the Bible, to Jesus. Blessed possi- 
bility ! Do you desire its realization ! Visit your 
scholars ! 

Do you wish to bind yourself to the hearts of 
your pupils, that you may more surely win them to 
Christ ? Visit their homes ! They will see more 
love in one such visit than they will discover in 
your presence for a year in your class. At school 
you are simply a portion of an organization, deal- 
ing with the child more as a scholar than as an 



62 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

individual. Going to the scholar's home individu- 
alizes your effort, makes him feel that your interest 
in him is personal. It is an act of love to h : m 
which promotes both his own self-respect and his 
attachment to you. By thus winning his heart 
for yourself you may gain it next for your Master. 
Love is a powerful weapon for winning souls. 
Do you wish to be armed with it ? Visit your 
scholars ! 

Do you desire the enlargement and elevation of 
your own nature? Visit your scholars. Deeds 
of kindness expand the affections. To visit your 
pupils may cost you a struggle with your bashful- 
ness, reserve, want of tact, or it may be with your 
pride. Making the struggle will be an act of self- 
conquest, of self-enlargement, of moral elevation. 
It will bring you nearer to the image of Christ. 
Do you desire this high attainment ? Visit your 
scholars ! 

Finally, fellow-teachers, if you wish to give full 
effect to your great work, accept the occasional 
visitation of your pupils at their homes as an in- 
dispensable part of your official duty. Visit your 
scholars ! 



THE CATECHISM. 

" I don't think much of the Catechism," said a 
thoughtless young teacher the other day to his 
superintendent. 

" Well, I do," was the emphatic and sensible 
reply. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 63 

By way of supporting the opinion of this and 
every other superintendent whose teachers do not 
think much of the Catechism, I quote the deliber- 
ate expression of the learned and observing Dr. 
Morrison, who for many years gave much thought 
and labor to the Sunday-school. In a letter writ- 
ten shortly before his death he said : 

"Upon the subject of catechisms generally, as 
aids to instruction in our Sunday-schools, after 
mature deliberation I do not think, in our present 
circumstances, that they can be laid aside with 
advantage. My calm and serious conviction is, 
that catechetical instruction, purged from all ob- 
jectionable matter, is eminently fitted to arrest the 
attention of the scholar; and, if it be sufficiently 
ample and comprehensive, to supply an amount 
of connected systematic knowledge of divine truth 
far exceeding that which can be conveyed by the 
biblical lessons of the ordinary run of Sunday- 
school teachers. I am fully persuaded that this 
view of the subject will only be rejected by those 
who are least competent to decide the merits of so 
grave a question." 

Dr. Morrison was doubtless right. I commend 
his view of the question to the thoughtful consid- 
eration of every superficial teacher who " don't 
think much of the Catechism," suggesting that 
when he brings maturer thoughts and broader 
views to bear upon the subject, he will probablv 
feel ashamed to remember that he ever uttered 
those thoughtless words, " I don't think much of 
the Catechism." 



64 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 



THE PASSIOtf FOR SOUL-SAVING. 

A storekeeper who had a passion for soul- 
saving made his wrapping papers and bags do 
duty as tracts. Among other things, he sent out 
in this novel way the following " Epitaph on a 
Sleeper in the House of God :" 

Here lies a man who every Sabbath-day 

In public worship slept his time away. 

He might have heard of heavenly rest, but chose 

In his pew rather to indulge repose. 

The scene is altered now : in vain he tries, 

In easy slumbers, once to close his eyes ; 

For God insulted doth in anger swear, 

" He who despised my rest shall never enter there." 

Teacher, have you ever taxed your inventive 
powers in seeking the salvation of your scholars ? 
If not, suppose you seek some new simple device 
to rouse their attention. Until you do this, let 
me suggest that you write each of them a letter 
urging them to give their hearts to Christ. You 
know how rare a thing it is for children to receive 
a letter. Most of your scholars have never had 
one sent to them since they were born. Its com- 
ing would be a great event in their young lives. 
It would arouse all their curiosity, and prepare 
them to read your exhortation with profit. Try 
it. Put all the love you have for their souls into 
a letter for each of your pupils. Pray over your 
epistle/s before and after writing them. Send them 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 65 

in faith. Who knows but that they may lead one 
or all of your precious pupils to Christ. Try it. 
If it fail, place your inventive powers under the 
direction of love, and try some other equally fitting 
device. 



M IMPATIENT TEACHER REBUKED. 

"Your child is unbearable, madam. His con- 
duct is really too bad to be endured. He is the 
worst boy in my class." 

Thus spoke a lady teacher one day to the moth- 
er of one of her Sunday-scholars. The flash in 
her eye and the bitterness in her tone told the 
poor mother very plainly that the teacher's tem- 
per had been sorely galled by her child's miscon- 
duct. An air of sadness overspread the mother's 
face as she replied : 

"I know my boy is naughty, madam, very 
naughty; but O, do you remember how very 
naughty you used to be? You were always in 
punishment." 

The teacher felt rebuked. The mother's charge 
was true, for both teacher and mother had grown 
up in the same neighborhood. Self-condemned 
for her impatience, the teacher went home, resolv- 
ing that, as her teachers had borne with her child- 
ish misconduct, she would henceforth bear more 
meekly with the misdoings of her idle pupils. 

The resolution was a good one. It might be 
adopted with equal propriety by many other im- 

5 



66 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

patient, fretful, petulant teachers. If I mistake 
not, that disposition which is most easily stirred 
by the naughtiness of childhood was the source 
of similar naughtiness in the child-life of its pos- 
sessor. I mean, that generally the easily troubled 
teacher was once a troublesome scholar. Would 
it not be well therefore for you, O nervous, vexed 
teacher, to see if your former self is not repro- 
duced in that pupil who is as vinegar to your 
teeth ? If so, should you not strive to repay the 
patience which bore with your childish follies, by 
being long-suffering toward your present little 
tormentor ? That restlessness in him may be but 
the surplus energy of a nature which, once sancti- 
fied, will become a burning and a shining light in 
the world. Remember, the dirt which covered a 
noisy tinker's boy concealed a John Bunyan. 
Your worst scholar may become a Baxter, a John 
Nelson, a Richard Watson. Bear with him, then. 
Save him! Polish him into a jewel for your 
Master's crown ! 



THE KIND-LOOKING TEACHER. 

" I want to join Mr. Baxter's class if you please, 
sir," said a boy who was seeking admission to a 
Sunday-schooL 

" Wfiy Mr. Baxter's class, my son ? " asked the 
superintendent. 

" Because," replied the boy, " I think from the 
look of the teacher he is a kind man. I have 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 67 

often seen him in church with his class and he 
seems very good-natured." 

The kind-looking teacher got the new scholar, 
the whole of him, heart and all. The kind ex- 
pression which played so beautifully about his 
features had made the boy open his heart to his 
influence. Happy teacher! His work with that 
boy was half done before he gave him his first 
lesson. In gaining his heart had he not won the 
citadel of his nature ? Remember the path to the 
brain and to the will runneth through the affections. 

Kindness ! Love ! A gentle manner flowing 
from a loving heart is a teacher's mightiest weap- 
on next to his faith in God. Kindness melts the 
frost from the roughest natures. Kindness un- 
bars the doors of the child's soul. Kindness is 
both introduction and application to the teacher's 
lesson. Kindness exemplifies the truth. Kind- 
ness conquers souls. Therefore, O teacher, let 
love fill your heart, and let the law of kindness be 
written by the finger of God upon thy lips and in 
all thy features. 



WHAT I HAVE SEEN. 

I have seen a teacher come into school late. 
" Better late than never," say such. " Better soon 
than late," say I. 

I have seen a teacher allow his scholars to enter 
the class on Sunday morning without the slightest 
salute. How very friendly ! 



68 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

I have seen a teacher allow one of his scholars 
to pass him in the street unnoticed. How he must 
have loved him ! 

I have seen a teacher strike one of his scholars. 
If a scholar must be corporeally punished, it ought 
to be done by the superintendent only. And per- 
haps I ought to recommend to the superintendent 
who follows this practice, that the sooner he leaves 
it off the better. 

I have seen a teacher engaged in giving his class 
lessons in spelling. Generally ', I would recom- 
mend that this practice be discontinued, till every 
child knows all that it is possible to learn from the 
word of God. 

I have seen a teacher fall asleep in his class. 
This needs no remark. 

I have seen a teacher so devoid of respect for 
his own lungs as to monopolize the whole duty of 
the class. Preaching to a Sunday-school class is 
intolerable. 

I have seen a teacher, by his loud speaking, at- 
tract the attention of neighboring classes. A noisy 
school is the necessary consequence. 

I have seen a teacher allow more than one scholar 
to speak at once. This practice also tends to dis- 
turb the sweet quietude which ought to prevail in 
a Sunday-school. 

I have seen a teacher continue his teaching after 
the bell had been rung. He ought, rather, to have 
ceased instantly, and to have taken care that his 
scholars did likewise. — An Old Superintendent, 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 69 



THE ART OF TELLING A STORY. 

The following anecdote is probably well known 
to most of our readers, and for its appearance in 
the present altered shape, we cannot account bet- 
ter than in the words of the correspondent who 
sends it to us. — Church of England Magazine. 

Allow me at the same time to express my sor- 
row at the deficiency which I have always noticed 
in the stories which are written for little children. 
Would it not be better if the " picturing out " sys- 
tem were better attended to ? Whenever I find 
a story which I wish to tell I have to write it out 
again, to put it into a more attractive form for the 
little ones. 

Of course the " picturing out " should be accom- 
panied with a slight "acting out" on the teacher's 
part, circumstances regulating the extent. 

"I love rr." 

One very fine day, when the sun was shining 
brightly, a little girl was sitting on a stool just 
outside the door of her cottage. There were sev- 
eral little children playing not far off, but she did 
not go and join them. She had a Bible on her lap. 
She did not look about her, but kept on reading 
her Bible. By and by a gentleman came to the 
cottage. He had been walking a long, long way, 
and it was so hot that he was very thirsty. He 



70 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

came up quite close to the little girl without her 
seeing him, because she was so busy reading. So 
he said : 

" My little girl, will you be so kind as to get me 
some water ? " 

The little girl got up at once, and put her Bible 
down and went into the cottage. She went to a 
cupboard and took out a jug and mug ; then she 
went and filled the jug with water, and took it to 
the gentleman ; and she poured out the water into 
the mug and gave it to him. The gentleman 
thanked her for it, and he liked the nice cold water 
very much. When he gave her back the mug he 
said : 

" What book was that, my little girl, which I 
saw you reading ? " 

" The Bible, sir," she said. 

" And why have you left your play to read the 
Bible?" 

" Because I love it, sir." 

The gentleman wished her good morning, and 
left her to go on with her reading. 

Now this gentleman was not a good man. He 
did not love God, and he did not love God's Bible. 
As he went along the road he began to think of 
the little girl. He was quite sure the little girl 
had spoken the truth, because if she had not loved 
the Bible she would not have left her play to read 
it when she thought nobody was looking at her ; 
for this little girl did not do it that persons might 
see her and praise her. The gentleman thought, 
" That little girl loves her Bible ; I don't love my 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 71 

Bible ; I wish I was like that little girl ! " Then 
he began to think why he did not love it, and he 
saw the reason was that he was wicked. He was 
very sorry indeed when he saw that he was wicked, 
so sorry that the tears rolled down his cheeks. 
When he got home he took his Bible and read it, 
and he kept on reading until he loved it too. 



A BAD BOY CONQUERED BY LOVE. 

A LESSON FOR TEACHERS. 

A German teacher named Jeremiah Flate tells 
this story. He says : Fifty years I was master of 
the Orphan Asylum in Stuttgard, and had a whole 
room full of children to instruct. It was my cus- 
tom to pray every morning for meekness and pa- 
tience in the fulfillment of this arduous duty. One 
day, as I was walking up and down among the 
children, I observed a boy about twelve years of 
age leaning with both his elbows upon the table. 
I reproved him for this improper behavior and 
walked on. The next time I passed he was doing 
the same thing, and I was obliged to repeat my 
desire that he should take his arms off the table. 
He obeyed me for a moment ; but when I returned 
for the third time I found him angry and perverse, 
and could read in his face that he was determined 
to despise my orders. 

I was much annoyed, but restrained myself, and 



72 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

prayed inwardly for strength to exercise patience 
toward this poor child, even as my God had been 
patient toward me. My ill-humor vanished im- 
mediately; I became calm, and was enabled to 
continue my instructions. The boy obstinately 
remained in the same attitude, but I took no no- 
tice of him. When school was over I sent for him 
into my study, praying in the mean time for wis- 
dom and composure of mind. He stamped in, 
and banged the door after him in a violent passion. 
" Why did you bang the door so violently ? " I 
asked. 

" I did not bang it," he replied. 

" Yes you did bang it, my boy," said L 

" I tell you I did not," was the answer. 

Upon this I went up to him, took his hand, and 
asked him, in a gentle voice, " Do you know, my 
son, against whom you are sinning? It is not 
against me, but against your Saviour, your best 
friend. Examine yourself, and try to find out why 
you have behaved in this manner." 

The boy's heart was touched; he burst into 
tears, and entreated me to forgive his wicked be- 
havior. "I had determined this morning," con- 
tinued he, " to tease you by my disobedience till 
you should beat me, thinking you would suffer 
much more from it than I should. Pray, pray 
forgive me. I shall never do so again in all my 
life." 

I pointed out to him from what a great tempta- 
tion he had been delivered, and then dismissed 
him, with the assurance that I had long since for- 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 73 

given him. He left me, but still appeared almost 
inconsolable. In the afternoon, having finished 
my classes, I was sitting alone in my little study 
when I heard a knock at the door. The boy came 
in, his eyes red with weeping; and, saying it was 
impossible I could have forgiven him, for he had 
behaved toward me like a devil, he begged I would 
tell him once more that I had forgiven him, re- 
peating that he would never vex me again, not 
even by a look. I again assured him of my full 
forgiveness, but told him he must ask pardon of 
his Saviour, against whom he had chiefly sinned, 
and who would certainly hear his prayer if his 
repentance was sincere. The boy, however, left 
me, still crying. 

I had scarcely risen the next morning when 
my little penitent came again, crying so bitterly 
that I was quite astonished. He said the remem- 
brance of his conduct the day before had prevented 
his sleeping, and entreated me, with his whole 
heart, to continue to love him as I had done be- 
fore. He could not imagine what had led him to 
form such a naughty resolution, and assured me 
he had determined not to allow any punishment 
to overcome his obstinacy, but had been quite un- 
able to resist the kind and gentle means I had used 
to convince him of his fault. He begged me to 
tell him how it had been possible for me to bear 
with this wicked behavior as I had done. To this 
I answered : " Dear child, I cannot explain that 
to you ; but, if I must express it to you in a few 
words, it is because I have myself received much 



74 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

mercy from the Lord that I have been enabled to 
show mercy toward you." Thus spoke this ven- 
erable man, and concluded with the satisfactory 
intelligence that the boy had from that day be- 
come his best scholar, and was still living in 
Stuttgard, esteemed by all who knew him as an 
honest and virtuous citizen. 



CHILDREN MUST BE CONVERTED. 

All children were " born in sin " at first, and our 
Saviour Christ saith, " Ye must be born again ;" 
and the most likely way to fulfill the designs of 
God is to look to our Sunday-schools and children. 
Our duty to them includes something more than 
merely teaching scholars to read the Bible. God 
indeed has said, " These words which I command 
thee this day shall be in thine heart; and thou 
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." 
They must, therefore, be instructed in religion. 
An apostle of Christ also speaks of u the gift of 
the Holy Ghost," and expressly adds, " The prom- 
ise is unto you and to your children." A promise 
is given in order to be pleaded. For " thus saith 
the Lord God, I have spoken it, and I will do it." 
" I will yet be inquired of by the house of Israel 
to do it for them." 

Few things at this day are more needed than 
revival prayer-meetings in and for Sunday-schools. 
When that promise, in answer to prayer, has been 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 75 

fulfilled, (and, like all the other promises of God, 
it is in Christ yea, and in him amen,) " I will pour 
my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon 
thine offspring," then, when scholars are asked by 
some authorized representatives of the Church if 
they now ratify their own baptism, u One shall 
say, I am the Lord's ; and another shall call him- 
self by the name of Jacob ; and another shall 
subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname 
himself by the name of Israel." — Samuel Jackson. 



INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL PIETY. 

Lsr a certain village there were ninety-eight settled 
families having children over ten years of age. 
In twenty-seven of them both parents were pious ! 
In these twenty-seven families there were one 
hundred and twenty-five children over ten years 
old. Eighty-four, or about two thirds of these 
children were pious. 

In nineteen of the ninety-eight families only one 
of the parents — the mother with a single excep- 
tion — was pious. Of the ninety-five children they 
contained, thirty-one — one third — were pious. 

In the remaining y^/fa/^o families neither parent 
was pious ! Of their one hundred and thirty-nine 
children only thirteen — not one tenth — were pious. 
These facts, the fruit of careful investigation, 
strikingly illustrate the immense power of parerital 
influence for good or ill. Piety in both parents 



76 OUE SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

won two thirds of their little ones to Christ ; in 
one parent one third ; where no piety existed, only 
one tenth (and they were saved by the Sunday- 
school) were lovers of God ! 



THE BEST WORD W ALL THE BIBLE. 

u Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." 

Bishop Butler upon his death-bed sank into de- 
spondency under a sense of his sinfulness. " My 
lord," said his chaplain, " you forget that Jesus 
Christ is a Saviour." " True," replied the bishop, 
" but how shall I know that he is a Saviour for 
me ? " " My lord, it is written, ' Him that cometh 
unto me I will in no wise cast out.' " " True," 
said the bishop, "and I have read that Scrip- 
ture a thousand times, but I never felt its full 
value till this moment ; stop there ! for now I die 
happy." 

"For all I have preached or written," said Mr. 
James Durham, " there is but one Scripture I can 
remember or dare grip to. Tell me, if I dare lay 
the weight of my salvation upon it, 'Him that 
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' " His 
friend replied, "You may indeed depend upon it, 
though you had a thousand salvations at hazard." 
A glance of joy lighted up the soul of *the dying 
saint, under the radiance of which he was ushered 
into the glory and brightness of eternity. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 77 

The following incident is another example of 
one who, in his low estate, grasped this cord let 
down to reach the lowest, grasped it with feeble, 
dying hands, and was drawn forth by means of it 
into life and light and full salvation. 

It was a sorrowful company to whom I was 
introduced, composed of old and young. But a 
wasted figure in the chimney corner fixed my at- 
tention. He was crouched on a low stool with 
his head buried in his hands, and leaning on the 
great wooden coal-box which served as a sofa for 
the feebler patients. His life was evidently draw- 
ing near to the grave, and he seemed scarcely able 
to support himself on his seat. But he suffered 
more in bed he said, and so he sat up as much as 
possible. In the course of conversation I repeated 
to him the gracious offers and invitations of " Him 
with whom we have to do," ending with these 
words : " And him that cometh unto me I will in 
no wise cast out." In feeble, faltering accents he 
repeated them after me, adding, " I think that is 
the best word in all the Bible." 



EARLY CONVERSION . 

The period of childhood is the very best season of 
the scholar's life for being converted to God — the 
best season for feeling the attractive power of di- 
vine truth upon the heart. I have no sympathy 
with those who say they ought not to expect early 



78 OUB SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

conversions ; I have a deep sympathy with those 
who say they have not looked for conversions 
early enough. The fact is, we are almost afraid to 
talk about Christ's lambs, and seem to think they 
must almost grow into sheep before they are 
brought into the fold. The devil learns the worth 
of these little ones, and he seeks to lay hold of 
them as soon as he can; and the sooner Sunday- 
school teachers adopt a kindred policy in this re- 
spect the more likely are they to succeed. 



OUR GREAT GOD. 



INCIDENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

1. There are certain pagans whose God is known 
as Buddha. Their priests say to the people, 
" Think of Buddha and you will be transformed 
into Buddha. If men pray to Buddha, and do 
not become Buddha, it is because the mouth prays 
and not the mind." How much greater the power 
of prayer sincerely offered to the Christian's God ! 

2. Proverbs about God. — " God never wounds 
with both hands." 

"Many meet the gods, but few salute them." 
" The feet of the avenging deities are shod with 
wool." 

3. " Have Faith in God." — A poor widow was 
weeping in the room where lay the body of her 
husband. Their only child came in and said, 
" Why do you weep so, mother ? " The mother 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 79 

told him of their loss, and especially referred to 
their poverty. " The poorhouse will receive us." 
Looking into her face the little fellow said, " Is 
God dead, mother ? " 

4. God in his Works. — A poor woman kept a 
strawberry plant in a broken pot in her window. 
It grew and flourished finely, and when a friend 
congratulated her on the promise of fruit, she re- 
plied, " Ah, it is not for the fruit I keep it. I am 
too poor to keep any living creature, but it is a 
great comfort to me to have that plant, for I know 
it can live only by the power of God, and to see 
it live and grow from day to day, it tells me that 
God is near." 

5. Simonides, a heathen poet, being asked by 
Hiero, King of Syracuse, What is God ? desired a 
day to think upon it ; and when that was ended 
he desired two, and when these were past he de- 
sired four ; thus he continued to double the num- 
ber of days in which he desired to think of God 
before he could give an answer. Upon which the 
king expressed his surprise at his behavior, and 
asked him what he meant by this. To which the 
poet answered, "The more I think of God he is 
still the more unknown to me." 

6. A certain man went to a dervise and pro- 
posed three questions: 1st. Why do they say that 
God is omnipresent ? I do not see him in any 
place ; show me where he is. 2dly. Why is man 
punished for his crimes, since whatever he does 
proceeds from God ? Man has no free will, for he 
cannot do anything contrary to the will of God ; 



80 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

and if he had power he would do everything for 
his own good. 3dly. How can God punish Satan 
in hell fire, since he is formed of that element? 
and what impression can fire make on itself?" 
The dervise took up a large clod of earth and 
struck him on the head with it. The man went 
to the cadi and said, " I proposed three questions 
to a dervise, who flung such a clod of earth at me 
as has made my head ache." The cadi having 
sent for the dervise, asked, " Why did you throw 
a clod of earth at his head instead of answering 
his questions ? " The dervise replied, " The clod 
of earth was an answer to his speech. He says he 
has a pain in his head ; let him show me the pain 
and I will make God visible to him. And why 
does he exhibit a complaint to you against me? 
Whatever I did was the act of God. I did not 
strike him without the will of God, and what 
power do I possess? And, as he is compounded 
of earth, how can he suffer pain from that ele- 
ment ? " The man was confounded, and the cadi 
highly pleased with the dervise's answer. 

7. A little boy of extraordinary abilities being 
introduced into the company of a dignified cler- 
gyman, was asked by him where God was, 
with the promise of an orange. " Tell me," re- 
plied the boy, " where he is not, and I will give 
you two." 

3. The teacher of a Sabbath-school in Bristol, 
discoursing with the children, asked among other 
things, "Where is God?" One of the elder boys 
immediately answered, " In heaven." The teacher 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 81 

not appearing satisfied with this reply, again re- 
peated the inquiry, when a lad, younger than the 
other, answered, "Everywhere." Requiring still 
further explanation, the question was again put, 
" Where is God ? " when a third boy called out, 
" God is here. 55 The views of the teacher were 
now met ; and he endeavored to impress upon the 
minds of the children the important truth that 
God is in heaven— God is everywhere — God is 
here. 

9. It was a fine reply that a pupil of the Deaf 
and Dumb Institution of Paris made to the follow- 
ing question, put by a gentleman visiting it, 
" What is eternity ? " " It is the lifetime of the 
Almighty ! " 

10. A little boy being asked, " How many gods 
are there ? 5 ' replied, " One. 5 ' " How do you know 
that ? ' 5 " Because, 55 said the boy, " there is only 
room for one, for he fills heaven and earth. 5 ' 

11. At Buhapurum, in the northern Cicars, a 
child about eight years old, who had been edu- 
cated in Christianity, was ridiculed on that account 
by some heathens older than himself. In reply, he 
repeated what he had been taught respecting God : 
" Show us your God ! 55 said the heathen. " I can- 
not do that, 5 ' answered the child ; " but I can soon 
show you yours. 55 Taking a stone and daubing it 
with some resemblance of a human face, he placed 
it very gravely upon the ground, and pushing it 
toward them with his foot, " There, 55 said he, " is 
such a god as you worship." 

12. A gentleman being invited by an honorable 

6 



82 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

personage to see a stately building erected by Sir 
Christopher Hatton, he desired to be excused, and 
to sit still, looking on a flower which he held in 
his hand : " For," said he, " I see more beauty of 
God in this flower, than in all the beautiful edifices 
in the world." 

13. Volney, a French infidel, was on board a 
vessel during a violent storm at sea, when the ship 
was in imminent danger of being lost ; he threw 
himself on the deck, crying in agony, " O my God ! 
my God ! " " There is a God, then, Monsieur Vol- 
ney ? " said one of the passengers to him. " O 
yes," exclaimed the terrified infidel, " there is, 
there is ! Lord, save me." The ship, however, got 
safely into port. Volney was extremely discon- 
certed when his confession was publicly related ; 
but excused it by saying he was so frightened by 
the storm that he did not know what he said, and 
immediately returned to his atheistical sentiments. 

14. " Were I fully able to describe God," says 
Epictetus, " I should be God myself, or God must 
cease to be what he is." 

15. "I have been told of a good man," says Mr. 
M. Henry, " among whose experiences, which he 
kept a record of, this, among other things, was 
found after his death : that at such a time in secret 
prayer, his heart, at the beginning of the duty, 
was much enlarged, in giving to God those titles 
which are awful and tremendous, in calling him 
the great, the mighty, and the terrible God ; but 
going on thus, he checked himself with this 
thought, ' And why not my Father V " 



OUE SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 83 

16. During the American war a British officer, 
walking out at sunrising, observed at some distance 
an old man, whom he supposed to be taking aim 
at some game. When come up to him, the officer 
took him by the arm, and said, " What are you 
about ? " The old man made no reply, but waved 
his hand expressive of his desire for him to stand 
at a distance. This not satisfying the inquirer, he 
repeated the question, when the native again 
waved his hand. At length, somewhat astonish- 
ed, the officer said, " You old fool, what are you 
about ? " To which he answered, " I am worship- 
ing the Great Spirit." The question was then 
asked, " Where is he to be found ? " To which 
the old man replied, " Soldier ! where is he not ? " 
and with such energy of expression as made the 
officer confess he should never forget it to his dying 
day. 

1 7. Lord Craven lived in London when that sad 
calamity, the plague, raged. His house was in 
that part of the town since called Craven Build- 
ings. On the plague growing epidemic, his lord- 
ship, to avoid the danger, resolved to go to his 
seat in the country. His coach and six were ac- 
cordingly at the door, his baggage put up, and all 
things in readiness for the journey. As he was 
walking through his hall with his hat on, his cane 
under his arm, and putting on his gloves, in order 
to step into his carriage, he overheard his negro, 
who served him as postillion, saying to another 
servant, " I suppose, by my lord's quitting London 
to avoid the plague, that his God lives in the coun- 



84 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

try, and not in towa." The poor negro said this 
in the simplicity of his heart, as really believing a 
plurality of gods. The speech, however, struck 
Lord Craven very sensibly, and made him pause. 
" My God," thought he, " lives everywhere, and 
can preserve me in town as well as in the country. 
I will even stay where I am. The ignorance of 
that negro has just now preached to me a very 
useful sermon. Lord, pardon this unbelief, and 
that distrust of thy providence which made me 
think of running from thy hand." He immediately 
ordered his horses to be taken from the coach, and 
the baggage to be taken in. He continued at 
London, was remarkably useful among his sick 
neighbors, and never caught the infection. 

18. One day when Mr. Richards, missionary in 
India, was conversing with the natives, a fakeer 
came up, and put into his hand a small stone about 
the size of a sixpence, with the impression of two 
human likenesses sculptured on the surface ; he 
also proffered a few grains of rice, and said, " This 
is Mahadeo ! " Mr. Richards said, " Do you know 
the meaning of Mahadeo ? " The fakeer replied, 
" No." Mr. R. proceeded, " Mahadeo means the 
great God, he who is God of gods, and besides 
whom there can be no other. Now, this great God 
is a spirit ; no one can see a spirit, who is intangi- 
ble. Whence, then, this visible impression on a 
senseless, hard, immovable stone ? To whom will 
ye liken God ? or what likeness will ye^ compare 
unto him ? God is the high and lofty One that 
inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. He hath 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 85 

said, 'I am Jehovah; there is no God besides 
me.' " The poor fakeer was serious, respectful, 
and attentive ; continually exclaiming, " Tour 
words are true." 

19, "I shall never forget," said a young minis- 
ter, " the last words of my dear mother as I 
started from home to engage in business for my- 
self. It was midnight. The family had remained 
up to make the last evening at home as pleasant 
as possible for the boy who was to go from them. 
The time for parting arrived. My mother came 
to me, and putting her arms around my neck, gave 
me a sweet kiss, and said in tones so full of sweet- 
ness, ' My dear boy^ live 7iear to G-od? I shall 
never forget the sadness of that parting, the pale- 
ness of that dear face, the tenderness of that fare- 
well embrace, but I remember them all, through 
the depth and force of that parting sentence, c My 
dear boy, live near to God.' " 

20. In speaking of pantheism, Bishop Thomson 
says : " If God is matter and matter is God, then 
surely we may add with Pascal, ' It is no matter 
whether there be any God at all. 5 " 

21. The meanest pin in nature's frame 
Marks out some letter of His name ; 
Across the earth, around the sky 
There's not a spot, or deep, or high, 
Where the Creator hath not trod, 
And left the footsteps of a God.' 



22. Before men we stand as opaque bee-hives. 
They can see the thoughts go in and out of us, 
but what work they do inside of a man they can- 



86 OUE SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

not tell. Before God we are as glass bee-hives, 
and all that our thoughts are doing within us he 
perfectly sees and understands. — Beecher. 

23. The celebrated Linnaeus always testified in 
his conversation, writings, and actions, the great- 
est sense of God's omniscience. He placed over 
the door of the hall in which he gave his lectures, 
" Innocui vivite ! Numen adest " — Live guiltless, 
God observes you. 

24. A child instructed in a Sabbath-school, on 
being asked by his teacher if he could mention a 
place where God was not, made the following 
striking and unexpected reply : " Not in the 
thoughts of the wicked" 

25. "Have you anything you did not receive 
from God?" inquired a teacher of his pupils. 
" No," said all the scholars but one. He replied, 
"Yes." "What is that?" asked the teacher. 
"Sin," replied the boy. He was right. Sin is 
not God's gift. It is the devil's curse. God hates 
it. Good children hate it. None but sinners 
love it. As John Bunyan sung, 

" Fools make a mock at sin, will not believe 
It carries such a dagger in its sleeve ; 
But sin's the gnawing worm, the quenchless fire, 
And hell would lose its heat could sin expire." 

26. A group of children were holding a prayer 
meeting. One of them in his prayer said, " Lord, 
rock us in thy cradle." It was a childish mode 
of expression, but showed a beautiful trust in the 
little suppliant. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCBAP-BQOK. 87 




PICTURE STUDIES FOR A SUNDAY-SCHOOL CLASS. 

The teacher ', covering the printed part of the page, 
and exposing only this picture to her class, asks 
the question : How many things do you see in 
this picture? After looking in silence for a min- 
ute, at her request they will perhaps give some such 
answers as these: Walls of a city, hills, trees, 
paths; a walled, oblong pool, with water in it; 
vines growing over the walls, etc., etc. How 
many persons can you count in the picture? 
The teacher now asks about the picture, as to what 
city it is, and what pool. Let the class then turn 



88 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

to the following passages and read them : Nehe- 
miah iii, 15 ; Isaiah viii, 6 ; John ix, 1-11. 

Turning to any map of Jerusalem, the follow- 
ing points are determined: The Scripture name 
of the pool? Its present Arabic name? The 
name of the city ? The direction from the city 
to the pool? Near what great valley is it? 
What high hill or mountain west of it ? On the 
edge of what hill does the pool stand ? What lit- 
tle Arabic village east of it ? What is the direc- 
tion from the pool of Siloam to the old temple 
site ? to the Jaffa, or western gate of the city ? to 
Gethsemane ? 

Let the scholars now read carefully and slowly 
the following facts. Let each scholar read a par- 
agraph over three times in the hearing of the 
class. 

1. The pool of "Siloam," "Siloah," or, as the 
Arabs now call it, " Birket Silwan," is situated at 
the base of the hill Ophel, near the opening of the 
Tyropean or Cheesemonger's Valley, and not far 
from the valley of Kidron or Jehoshaphat. It is 
about 230 feet lower than the base of the wall at 
the southeast corner of the temple area, and dis- 
tant from it about 2000 feet. 

2. On the eastern slope of the hill Ophel, and 
northeast from Siloam, about twelve hundred 
feet in a straight line, is the u Fountain of the Vir- 
gin." This fountain is connected with Siloam by 
a crooked subterranean channel or passage, which 
measures seventeen hundred and fifty feet. In 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 89 

1838 Drs. Robinson and Smith worked their way- 
through this low and narrow tunnel. It was a 
perilous undertaking. At the distance of eight 
hundred feet from the pool of Siloam the passage 
became so low they could advance no further 
without crawling on all fours. So they turned 
back. A few days after they entered from the 
Fount of the Virgin and effected a passage. Dr. 
Robinson says, " Most of the way we could indeed 
advance upon hands and knees ; yet in several 
places we could only get forward by lying at full 
length and dragging ourselves along upon our 
elbows." 

3. The pool is " a rectangular reservoir, fifty- 
three feet long, eighteen wide, and nineteen 
deep, (Dr. Barclay says fifty feet long, four- 
teen and a half broad at the eastern end, and 
seventeen at the western ; it is eighteen feet 
and a half in depth, but never filled.) It is in 
part broken away at the western end. The mason- 
ry is modern ; but along the sides are six shafts of 
limestone columns of more ancient date, projecting 
slightly from the wall, and probably originally 
intended to sustain a roof. At the upper end 
of the pool is an arched entrance to a ruinous 
staircase, by which we descend to the mouth of 
the conduit that comes from the Fountain of the 
Virgin." — Dr. Porter. "This conduit enters 
Siloam at the northwest angle ; or rather en- 
ters a small rock-cut chamber which forms the 
vestibule of Siloam, about five or six feet broad." 
— Dr. Bonar. 



90 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

4. " Isaiah probably refers to Siloah under the 
name of the Old Pool, when he says, 'Ye made 
also a ditch between the two walls for the water 
of the old pooV This ditch may be the large res- 
ervoir at the mouth of the Tyropean, constructed 
to retain the surplus waters of Siloah. (Isaiah 
xxii, 11. Compare Jeremiah xxxix, 4, and lii, 7, 
and Nehemiah iii, 15." — Dr. Porter. 

5. " The water of the pool of Siloam flows out 
through a small channel cut or worn in the rock, 
and descends to refresh the gardens which are 
planted below on terraces, illustrating the expres- 
sion, i A fountain of gardens,' for a fountain in 
such a situation waters many gardens. These 
are the remains of the king's garden mentioned by 
Nehemiah and Josephus." — M'Cheyste. 

6. A modern scene at the pool is thus described : 
"Women and children with their waterpots, and 
field Arabs filling their squat, coarse waterskins, 
not unfrequently break the solitude of that little 
glen ; and the dark-skinned, black-haired Arab, 
with his rough white shirt, his sinewy limbs, his 
bright eyes, and his scarlet turban, and the white 
flowing head-dress, loose drapery, and majestic 
gait of the women, impart a living character to 
the scene not inconsistent with its old associations." 

7. " The drawing of water from Siloam in the 
Feast of Tabernacles (though no direction on the 
subject is found in the Mosaic laws) became a re- 
markable ceremonial in the latter ages of Judea. 
The priest with his attendants received it from 
the fountain in a golden vessel, and then, return- 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 91 

ing to the temple, mingled it with wine, and 
poured it on the altar. See Isaiah xii, 3 ; John 
vii, 39."— Dr. Croly. 

After a few general questions on the above read- 
ing lesson^ the following may be read by separate 
scholars, or by the class in concert : 

Siloam's Springs. 

But turn thee now to Salem-ward, and see 

Yon monument of thy Lord's power and love ; 
That hill is Zion, and that pool where he 
Doth wet his foot is Siloam ; above 

Its bottom lies, for in the mountain's breast 
Its springs of living silver make their nest. 

Joseph Beaumont. 

Fountain of Siloam. 

Beneath Moriah's rooky side 

A gentle fountain springs ; 
Silent and soft its waters glide, 

Like the peace the Spirit brings. 
The thirsty Arab stoops to drink 

Of the cool and quiet wave, 
And the thirsty spirit stops to think 

Of Him who came to save. 

Siloam is the fountain's name ; 

It means One sent from God : 
And thus the Holy Saviour's fame 

It gently spreads abroad. 
O grant that I, like this sweet well, 

May Jesus' image bear, 
And spend my life, my all, to tell 

How full his mercies are. — M'Chetne. 



92 



OUK SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 




FEMALE ORNAMENTS IN THE ORIENT. 

And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that 
the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and 
two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold. — 
Genesis xxiv, 22. 

In this verse we find a need for slightly altering 
the translation in our English Bible. In the time 
of King James, Eastern customs were hut imper- 
fectly understood, and our translators were oft- 
en puzzled by allusions to customs and habits 
altogether unknown among western nations. 
The word "ear-ring " should be a nose-ring." This 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 93 

explains the phrase in verse 47, where Abraham's 
servant speaks of putting " the ear-ring upon her 
face." It is observable that only one such orna- 
ment is mentioned, and not two, as would have 
been the case if rings for the ears were meant. 
Jewels for the nose are very common in the East. 
The ring is made of some precious metal, or of 
mother of pearl, or, among the poorer classes, of 
horn. It is always circular, and is worn not from 
the middle cartilage of the nose, but from the ex- 
ternal cartilage of the left nostril, which is pierced 
for the purpose. Chardin says that these rings 
are frequently set with jewels, as with a ruby be- 
tween two pearls ; but Kiito, who never saw the 
rubies, states that turquoise is the stone most gen- 
erally used. 

In the " Oriental Memoirs " of Forbes we find a 
graphic description of the higher class of Hindoo 
ladies in regard to their dress and appearance ; a 
description applicable, we have no doubt, in almost 
every particular, to the ladies of the Old Testament 
history : • 

" They take every method to render their per- 
sons delicate, soft, and attractive. Their dress is 
peculiarly becoming, consisting of a long piece of 
silk or cotton tied round the waist, and hanging in 
a graceful manner to the feet; it is afterward 
brought over the body in negligent folds. Under 
this they cover the bosom with a short waistcoat 
of satin, but wear no linen. Their long black hair 
is adorned with jewels and wreaths of flowers ; 
their ears are bored in many places, and loaded 



94 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

with pearls ; a variety of gold chains, strings of 
pearl and precious stones, fall from the neck over 
the bosom, and the arms are covered with brace- 
lets from the wrist to the .elbow : they have also 
gold and silver chains round the ankles, and abund- 
ance of rings on their fingers and toes ; among the 
former is frequently a small mirror. I think the 
richer the dress the less becoming it appears ; and 
a Hindoo woman of distinction always seems to 
be overloaded with finery, while the village nymph, 
with fewer ornaments, but in the same elegant 
drapery, is more captivating, although there are 
very few women, even of the lowest families, who 
have not some jewels at their marriage." 

We read elsewhere of bracelets, which are of two 
kinds. Some are large hollow rings of gold, more 
than an inch in diameter ; while others are flat, and 
more than two inches in breadth. Many ladies 
have collars of gold an inch broad, set with ru- 
bies, topazes, emeralds, carbuncles, or diamonds, 
besides an ornament for the forehead set with jew- 
els, together with belts ornamented with little bells 
and jewels. 

The bracelets given to Rebekah weighed " ten 
shekels." This is about four ounces and a half, 
which seems a great weight for such ornaments. 
But Chardin mentions the bracelets now to be seen 
in the East as being quite as heavy, and even heav- 
ier. He says that they are rather manacles than 
bracelets, and that they have no fastenings, but 
open and shut of their own elasticity. But, heavy 
and cumbrous as they are, no woman who can get 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 95 

more is content with only one pair. You will 
sometimes see five or six bracelets on each arm, 
covering the whole space from the wrist to the 
elbow. The truth is that these and their other 
ornaments form the whole weath of the woman as 
a general rule. They are therefore anxious to 
accumulate jewels and trinkets; and whatever 
they possess they wear at one time, having all 
their bracelets on their arms, all their anklets on 
their legs, and all their ear-rings on their ears. 
This is why Eliezer placed the nose-ring at once 
on Rebekah's nose, and the bracelets on her arms, 
instead of giving them to her as things to be treas- 
ured up. Both rings and anklets are called " ban- 
gles " in India, and they are made, among the 
poorer classes, of almost every possible substance, 
including all the baser metals, as pewter and lead. 
The "bangles" meant for the feet are flattened 
out, and made to fit over the instep like a gaiter, 
though of course much smaller. 

There are two passages in the prophets which 
may be cited as parallel with those description of 
Eastern costume which have just been placed be- 
fore the reader. In Ezekiel xvi, 10-13, we read: 
" I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod 
thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about 
with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I 
decked thee also with ornaments, and I put brace- 
let upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And 
I put a jewel on thy forehead, [the margin reads 
c nose,'] and ear-rings in thine ears, and a beautiful 
crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked 



96 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine 
linen, and silk, and broidered work." 

The other passage is Isaiah iii, 1 8-24, on which 
Dr. Kitto has some interesting notes. By " cauls " 
he understands braided ringlets of hair; by 
"moonlike tires," Eastern ornaments worn in 
front of the head-dress; and by "chains," drops 
or pendants. The " mufflers " are vails ; the " bon- 
nets " are turbans ; while the " headbands " (of 
verse 20) properly mean girdles round the body. 
The "tablets" were boxes of perfume attached to 
the necklace. The " wimples " are hoods for the 
head, while the " crisping pins " are purses. The 
same word is translated " bags" in 2 Kings v, 23. 
The " glasses " (of verse 23) are metallic mirrors, 
while the " hoods " are articles of dress not easily 
distinguished from some mentioned in the preced- 
ing verses. 

In the New Testament there are several cautions 
to Christian ladies against an undue regard to the 
finery of their dress. Both Saint Paul and Saint 
Peter adopt the same strain of exhortation. The 
one says : " I will that women adorn themselves 
in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and so- 
briety ; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, 
or costly array." The other cautions wives to be 
subject to their own husbands, and adds : " Whose 
adorning let it not be that outward adorning of 
plaiting of the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of 
putting on of apparel." It would be a difficult 
thing to determine precisely how far a woman 
professing godliness is at liberty to adorn herself 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 97 

with gold and jewels, and under what circum- 
stances she would be chargeable with a breach of 
the apostolic injunctions. Much must depend 
upon the varying customs of society, and still 
more upon the temperament and disposition of the 
individual "putter on of apparel." Overdressing 
is a sure mark of vulgarity. This also may be 
affirmed, without fear of contradiction : that the 
style of dress is objectionable and excessive where- 
ever it ministers to personal pride and vanity. On 
the other hand, none should seek to be singular, 
nor violate the requirements of neatness, elegance, 
and good taste in costume ; remembering that 
true beauty and grace are always " when unadorned 
adorned the most." Yet many worthy persons 
are carried away by an extravagant solicitude and 
care for the outward appearance. They spend 
more in head-dresses, for example, during a winter's 
round of " parties " than they give all the year 
through for benevolent cr religious objects. The 
time has unquestionably come for a stand to be 
made against the inroads and encroachments of 
worldly fashion within the circle of Christian 
communities. Much good has been done by the 
popular and well-known poem by Mr. Butler, en- 
titled "Nothing to Wear." Never was a satire 
on the vices and foibles of the times more urgently 
needed or more honestly written. The author 
spoke of what lay heavy on his heart, and he has 
blended the most grave moral lessons with much 
that is humorous, playful, and witty. His conclud- 
ing lines hint, in a gentle way, at the most weighty 

1 



98 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

considerations which can influence a believer in 
the gospel and revelation of Jesus Christ. It 
would be well for them to be read and remem- 
bered by every woman in the land. It would be 
well if each, especially the young and gay, could 
have them ever ringing in their ears. 

" And 1 if perchance there should be a sphere 
Where all is made right that so puzzles us here ; 
Where the glare, and the glitter, and tinsel of time 
Fade and die in the light of that region sublime ; 
Where the soul, disenchanted of flesh and of sense, 
Unscreened by its trappings, its shows, and pretense, 
Must be clothed for the life and the service above 
With purity, truth, faith, meekness, and love ; 
O daughters of earth, foolish virgins, beware ! 
Lest in that upper realm you have ' nothing to wear.' " 



"THE ROCK" IN THE YALLEY OF EL GHOR. 

BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. 

Dead Petra in her hill-tomb sleeps, 
Her stones of emptiness remain : 

Around her sculptured mystery sweeps 
The lonely waste of Edom's plain. 

From the doomed dwellers in the cleft 
The bow of vengeance turned not back. 

Of all her myriads none are left 
Along the Wady Mousa's track. 

Clear in the hot Arabian day 
Her arches spring, her statues climb ; 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 99 

Unchanged, the graven wonders pay 
No tribute to the spoiler Time ! 

Unchanged the awfiil lithograph 

Of power and glory undertrod, 
Of nations scattered like the chaff 

Blown from the threshing-floor of God. 

Yet shall the thoughtful stranger turn 
From Petra's gates, with deeper awe, 

To mark afar the burial urn, 
Of Aaron on the clifls of Hor : 

And where upon its ancient guard 
The rock, El Ghor — is standing yet — 

Looks from its turrets desertward, 
And keeps the watch that God has set. 

The same as when in thunders loud, 

Is heard the voice of God to man ; 
As when it saw in fire and cloud 

The angels walk in Israel's van ! 

Or when from Ezion-Geber's way 

It saw the long procession file, 
And heard the Hebrew timbrels play 

The music of the lordly Nile, 

Or saw the tabernacle pause, 

Cloud-bound by Kadesh Barnea's wells, 
While Moses graved the sacred laws, 

And Aaron swung his golden bells. 

Rock of the desert, prophet-sung ! 

How grew its shadowing pile in length, 
A symbol, in the Hebrew tongue, 

Of God's eternal love and strength. 



100 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

On lip of bard and scroll of seer, 
From age to age went down the name, 

Until the Shiloh's promised year, 
And Christ, the Kock of Ages, came. 

The path of life we walk to-day 
Is strange as that the Hebrews trod ; 

We need the shadowing rock as they ; 
"We need, like them, the guides of God. 

God send his angels, cloud and fire, 
To lead us o'er the desert land ! 

God give our hearts their long desire, 
His shadow in a weary land ! 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTITUTE. 

Sunday-school officers, and especially teachers, 
need a preparation for their responsible work. 
To sustain the reputation of this important depart- 
ment of the Church some means must be devised 
for the training of Sunday-school laborers. The 
Institute is an attempt to meet this demand. It 
differs from the teacher's meeting in this respect : 
that whereas the one is designed to prepare special 
lessons for immediate use, the other provides a 
course of preparatory training. The one gives the 
teacher an acquaintance with the facts and princi- 
ples involved in a particular passage of Scripture, 
while the other gives him general views of Bible 
truth, shows him the true methods of instruction, 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 101 

and enables him to teach on any subject with 
greater clearness and efficiency. The teachers' 
meeting is indispensable to the prosperity of a 
school. But in addition to its weekly preparations, 
every teacher needs an institute course of training. 
The institute also differs from the ordinary con- 
vention. The latter is a place for discussion about 
the Sunday-school and its work. It theorizes, 
gives experience, examines principles, etc. The 
institute is a place for illustrating Sunday- 
school operations. It shows how the work of 
organizing, governing, conducting, teaching, etc., 
is to be most successfully performed. It furnishes 
practical models of the thing desired. It com- 
pares various plans. It detects practical errors. 
It gives actual lessons for the sake of communi- 
ating Bible truth ; showing how this truth is too 
commonly taught in our schools, and just how it 
should be taught. 

The institute assumes of necessity several forms : 
1. The Church Normal Class. The advanced 
scholars and most earnest teachers organize a 
training-school, with the pastor or other compe- 
tent person as conductor. This class meets week- 
ly, semi-monthly, or monthly. It adopts a regu- 
lar course of study, and pursues it with as much 
thoroughness and care as a class in any other de- 
partment of science would do in seminary or col- 
lege. What a band of skilled and successful 
laborers would a few years of such discipline raise 
up in a Church ! What a rich reward would that 
pastor reap who should, in spite of all apathy 



102 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

and discouragements, organize and sustain such a 
class ! 

2. The Convention-Institute. In connection with 
a convention three or six hours may be spent in 
these training exercises. For example : At the 
New York State (Methodist Episcopal) Conven- 
tion the following programme was announced : 

PROGRAMME. 

2.00-2.05. DOXOLOGY AND INVOCATION. 

2.05-2.25. Reading of Scripture by the Institute, with re- 
marks on the reading of Scripture in Sunday-school. 

2.25-3.00. Preparation of a Bd3le Lesson : John iv, 9-14. 

3.00-3.05. Song: "The Wanderers." Air: "Home, sweet 
Home." 

3.05-3.20. Exercise in Sacred Geography: "The Wander- 
ings of Israel." 

3.20-3.35. Song: " Home for the Pilgrim." Air: "I'm a Pil- 
grim." 

3.25-3.50. Institute Reading and Recitation. Subject : 
" Inglis on Infant Classes." 

3.50-4.10. Illustrations of School Order. 

4.10-4.25. Six Pilgrimages to Palestine. With blackboard 
illustrations. 

4.25-4.35. Test Questions. 

4.35-5.00. List of Institute Exercises. 

The more time our Conventions can spend in 
this way, the better it will be for all concerned. 

3. Regular Institutes. Instead of the Convention, 
an Institute of two or four days' duration may be 
held for the district, or for a town or city. The 
following is the programme of such Institute re- 
cently announced for Elizabeth, New Jersey : 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 103 



PROGRAMME. 

Fibst Session — Monday Evening. 

t.45-9. Addresses on the "Relation of the Sunday-School to 
the Fireside, the Sanctuary, the Halls of Science, 
and the Nation." 



Second Session — Tuesday Morning, 

9.00-9.15. Devotional. 

9.15-9.45. Discussion. " The Relation and Duties of the Pas- 
tor to the Sunday -School. " 
9.45-1 0.20. Readings and Remarks. Sunday-School Officers. 
10.20-10.45. Singing. By Philip Phillips. 
10.45-11.10. Sunday-School Organization and Order. "With 

illustrations. 
11.10-11.35. Test Questions. 
11.35-12. Exercise in Sacred Geography. 



Third Session — Tuesday Afternoon. 

2.15-2.30. Opening. 
2.30-3.10. Serial Questions. 

1. Why should the Sunday-School Teacher be es- 
pecially trained for his work ? 

2. What course of training do we recommend to 
our teachers and to those senior scholars who 

are to become teachers in our schools ? 
3.10-3.30. Exercise in Sacred Geography. 
3.30-4. Serial Questions. 

1. Why should the trained Teacher make special 
preparation for every Lesson ? 

2. How do you prepare your Bible Lesson ? 
4 0-4. 1 5. Singing. 

4.15-5. Lecture on Methods of Bible Study. 



104: OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

Foubth Session— Tuesday Evening. 

7.45-8. Devotional. 

8.00-8.30. The Blackboard and Picture Teaching in Sun- 
day-school. 

8.30-9. Address on Sunday-School Singing. By Philip 
Phillips. With illustration. 

Fifth Session— Wednesday Morning. 

9.00-9.10. Opening. 

9.10-9.40. Infant Classes. 

9.40-10.15. Bible Study: « From Star to Star ; or, the East 
ern Magi at Bethlehem.'' Matt, ii, 1-12. 
10.15-11.15. Reports, Criticisms, and Remarks. 
11.15-12. The Question Drawer Opened. 

An Institute of three or four days may be held 
every year in connection with our biblical and 
theological schools. Thus the coming pastors of 
the Church will be made masters of the Sunday- 
school work. 

The young ministers and the Sunday-school 
superintendents of a conference or state may hold 
a sort of " Training Institute " for the prepara- 
tion of men who will afterward conduct district 
or local Institutes. Thus the conductors of the 
new movement will be provided. 

4. Academies, seminaries for young ladies, and 
schools of that class, may append a Normal De- 
partment to their regular course. From these 
educational centers every year we may find earn- 
est Sunday-school teachers coming to the help of 
the Church. Let the following be an example : 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 105 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL NORMAL DEPARTMENT OP THE NORTH- 
WESTERN FEMALE COLLEGE. 

This Department provides for three series of 
Sunday-School Institute Exercises, comprising 
Lectures on the Bible, Studies in Biblical Exege- 
sis, Recitations in Sacred History and Archaeology, 
Lectures on the Sunday-School Work, with Illus- 
trative and Practice Exercises in Sunday-school 
management and teaching. The three series may 
be taken in either two or three years, as pupils 
desire. 

FIRST SERIES. 

1. A Course of Lecture-Lessons on the Bible. 

2. Kecitations in Sacred History and Geography. 

3. Exegesis: 1st. Principles and Methods. 

2d. Practice in Old Testament History. 

4. The Sunday-School Work: 

1st. Lectures on Religious Education. 
2d. "Helpful Hints for Sunday-School Teach- 
ers," by J. H. Vincent. 



SECOND SEBIES. 

1. Recitations in Bible History and Archaeology. 

2. Exegesis : Practice in the Prophetic Books. 

3. The Sunday-School Work : 

1st. " The Sunday-school Teacher Assisted," by 

R. G-. Pardee. 
2d. Illustrative Exercises. 
3d. Works to be read: Dr. Todd's "Teacher 
Taught;" Inglis on "The Sabbath-School." 



106 OUK SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

THIRD SERIES. 

1. Principles and Art of Teaching : 

1st. Lectures. 
2d. Illustrative Exercises. 

3d. Works to be read: "Our Work," by W. H. 
G-roser ; Paige on the " Art of Teaching." 

2. The Sunday-School Work: 

1st. "Thoughts on Sunday-Schools," by John 

S. Hart, LL.D. 
2d. Lectures. 
3d. Practice — Lessons. 
4th. Illustrative Exercises. 

3. Exegesis : Practice in the New Testament. 

4. General Review of the three series, and final examinations. 

We append a few hints taken from a little work 
entitled "The Sunday-School Teachers' Insti- 
tute," for sale by Carlton and Porter, 200 Mul- 
berry-street, New York. 

PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS TO THOSE IN CHARGE OF 
THE INSTITUTE. 

1. Let ample notice be given. See that the 
local papers, secular and religious, refer frequently 
to it. Pay for this service if necessary. Let the 
pulpit announce it. Enlist the interest of pastors, 
superintendents, and teachers, by circulars ad- 
dressed to them. 

2. Prepare, print, and circulate a full programme, 
at least a week before the time of meeting. 

3. Prepare a complete list of Sunday-school offi- 
cers and teachers connected with the schools to be 
represented in the Institute. Register these in an 
Institute roll-book. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 107 

4. Secure in advance, from as many teachers as 
possible, the pledge of regular and punctual at- 
tendance. 

5. Request those in charge of the regular weekly 
prayer meetings of the several Churches, to make 
the Sunday-school cause the topic of conversation 
and prayer at the meeting immediately preceding 
the Institute. 

6. Request pastors to preach on the same sub- 
ject the preceding Sabbath. 

7. Have all officers and persons who are to take 
a leading part in the exercises appointed sufficiently 
long beforehand to warrant ample preparation, 
and such adjustment of their business as to insure 
regular attendance. 

8. Tour conductor must be a " live man." If 
you have not a competent person in your place 
secure the services of a stranger. 

9. Employ a chorister. 

10. Select a good room. Have it ready in time. 
It is a serious hinderance to the success of an In- 
stitute to find at the appointed hour a room just 
opened, cold, half swept, or full of dust. 

11. Furnish your Institute room for the occa- 
sion. Have Bible pictures and maps on the wall. 
Secure the maps necessary to illustrate all parts 
of Bible geography. Place a large clean black- 
board on the platform, furnish a rubber or brush, 
and a supply of crayons. Hang a clock where 
the conductor and teachers can see it. Provide 
an organ or melodeon, a piano also if practicable. 
On the conductor's table place a " call-bell." Buy 



108 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

a full supply of paper and pencils for the use of 
the Institute. In every seat put Bibles, singing- 
books, and programmes, and do this before the 
hour for commencing. You need a large diction- 
ary. Sometimes a verbal criticism is, or ought to 
be made, and it is well to have an authority con- 
venient. For the same reason such a Biblical 
Cyclopedia as Smith's Unabridged ought to 
be on the table. It will not always appear pe- 
dantic to have Greek and Hebrew lexicons for 
reference. 

12. Adopt some system of bell signals. If you 
would train your teachers to maintain perfect or- 
der in their own schools and classes, the Institute 
should, as nearly as possible, illustrate the thor- 
ough discipline of the model school. This idea 
may be carried to excess ; but precision in drill is 
not yet the prevailing fault of our American Sun- 
day-schools. 

13. Be prompt. Commence at the appointed 
minute. Follow your programme as the conduct- 
or of an express train does his time-table. 

14. Let your opening exercises be models of 
order and fervor. Do not allow your notions of 
propriety to chill spiritual aspirations. Sing, read, 
and pray " with the spirit, and with the under- 
standing also." Do not forget the spiritual aim 
of the Sunday-school and of the Sunday-school 
Institute. Guard this point with especial care. 
Now and then engage in a brief audible or silent 
prayer during the session. 

15. Forbid irrelevant discussion. Ring down 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 109 

tedious talkers. Never hesitate in this ; the good 
sense of the Institute will sustain you. 

16. See that a journal of the proceedings is duly 
kept, read in the hearing of the Institute, perma- 
nently recorded, and signed by the president or 
conductor and the secretary. 

17. As far as practicable make provision during 
the meeting for another Institute at some future 
time. Appoint time and place, and such commit- 
tees as may be required to prepare for it. 



CLASS NAMES, MOTTOES, AND EMBLEMS. 

Many schools, either for the pleasantness of the 
plan or as a means of cultivating a class-spirit, as 
well as to facilitate missionary collections, give 
each class a name and motto. The following is a 
list of appropriate names and mottoes for classes. 
At anniversary gatherings emblems are sometimes 
used. The names of these are in some cases given 
below. 

NAMES AND MOTTOES. - 

Bible Students — Motto : Search the Scriptures. 

Buds of Promise — Motto: Israel shall blossom and bud and 

fill the face of the world with fruit. 
Busy Bees — Motto : The hand of the diligent maketh rich. 
Christian Warriors — Motto : Put on the whole armor of God. 
Cheerful Givers — Motto : God loveth a cheerful giver. 
Charity Circle — Motto : Charity never faileth. 
Constant Workers — Motto : Our rest is in heaven. 
Early Seekers — Motto : Those that seek me early shall find 

me. 



110 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

Excelsior — Motto: Faint, yet pursuing. 

Field Flowers — Motto : Consider the lilies. 

Gospel Soldiers — Motto : Fight the good fight of faith. 

Golden Rule — Motto : Whatsoever ye would that men should 

do to you do ye even so to them. 
Golden Links — Motto: Faith, Hope, Charity. 
Hope Circle — Motto : Hope thou in God. 
Lovers of the Bible — Motto : how I love thy law. 
Little Builders — Motto: By our aid shall the temple rise. 
Little Disciples — Motto : Receive the kingdom of God as a 

little child. 
Little Gleaners — Motto: And she went and came and 

gleaned in the field after the reapers. 
Lovers op Truth — Motto : Ye shall know the truth, and the 

truth shall make you free. 
Little Reapers — Motto: Look on the fields, they are white 

already with harvest. 
Minute Men — Motto : Be instant in season and out of season. 
Onward and Upward — Motto : Let us go on unto perfection. 
Pearl Gatherers — Motto: And they shall be mine in that 

day when I make up my jewels. 
Treasure Seekers — Motto: Lay up for yourselves treasures 

in heaven. 
Threads of Gold — Motto : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 

thyself. 
The Coral Reef — Motto : 

" Little workers are we, but we work cheerfully ; 
The rock that we raise is all to the praise 
Of Jesus, our Saviour and King." 

Young Pilgrims — Motto : Our home is in heaven, the Celestial 

City. Emblem: A pilgrim. 
The Good Samaritan — Motto : He that giveth to the poor 

lendeth to the Lord. Emblem : Cruse of Oil, Bottle of Wine, 

and Money. 
Cross Bearers — Motto: We will bear the Cross, hoping o 

wear the crown. Emblem : A cross. 



OUK SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. Ill 

Young Volunteers— Motto : Fight the good fight of faith. 

Emblem : A Flag. 
Friendship — Motto : Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I 

command you. Emblem : A Cross. 
Always Something — Motto: We have done what we could. 

Emblem: A Bible, Hymn Book, and Discipline. 
Star of Bethlehem — Motto : And lo, the star which they saw 

in the East came and stood over where the young child was. 

Emblem : A star. 
Beacon Light — Motto : The people that walked in darkness 

have seen a great light. Emblem : A light. 
Alpha — Motto : In the beginning God created the heavens and 

the earth. Emblem : Greek letter Alpha. 
Willing Hearts and Ready Hands — Motto: Whatsoever 

thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Emblem : A 

heart. 
Morning Stars — Motto: Love and labor go hand in hand. 

Emblem : A Star. 
Spring Blossoms — Motto : The flowers appear on the earth : 

the time of the singing of the birds is come. Emblem : Yi- 

olet. 
Gospel Messengers — Motto : Go teach all nations. Emblem : 

A ship. 
Fidelity — Motto: Yours, in Gospel bonds. Emblem: Cross 

and wreath. 
First-Fruits — Motto : Honor the Lord with thy substance and 

with the first-fruits of all thy increase. Emblem: Fruit. 
Little Branches — Motto : I am the vine, ye are the branches. 

Emblem : A plant. 
Young Disciples — Motto : I love them that love me, and they 

that seek me early shall find me. Emblem: Basket of 

Flowers. 
Heathen's Friend — Motto : We labor for souls. Emblem : A 

Bible. 
Faithful Class — Motto : Be thou faithful unto death, and I 

will give thee a crown of life. Emblem: A crown. 
Forget Me Not — Motto : Remember the word that I said unto 

you. Emblem : Forget me not. 



112 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

Loyal Class — Motto : "We fight under the blood-stained ban- 
ner of King Immanuel. Emblem : A shield. 
Self-Denial — Motto : If any man will come after me let him 

deny himself take up his cross and follow me. Emblem : 

Cross and crown. 
Harvest Class — Motto : Pray the Lord of the harvest that he 

would send forth laborers into his vineyard. Emblem : Fruit. 
Flowers by the Wayside — Motto : Heaven plants its flowers, 

and scatters its jewels in unlooked for places. Emblem : 

Flowers. 
First Principles — Motto : Search the Scriptures. Emblem : A 

Bible. 
John "Wesley Class — Motto : "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to 

do, do it with thy might. Emblem : Statue of Wesley. 
Life-Boat, composed of the Officers of the School — Motto : We 

seek to save the perishing. Emblem : A life-boat. 



BIBLE GEOGRAPHY 01 THE BLACKBOARD. 

The principal facts in Bible geography may be 
placed in outline lessons on the blackboard. The 
abbreviated words will tax the ingenuity of the 
pupil, and thus arrest his attention. These exer- 
cises may be furnished in great numbers and vari- 
ety. Three specimens are given below : 

COUNTRIRS. CITIES. 

5 Men — 1. Sol., Palestine, Jerusalem. 

2. Na., h Syria, Damascus, 136 

3. Jon., Assyria, Nineveh. 550 

4. Neb., Chaldea, Babylon. 550 

{Media and 
Persia. 

S. of Egypt— Ethiopia. 
P. P. P. W. of Egypt— Libya. 

N. of Libya — Greece. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 113 
I. EXPLANATORY NOTES. 

1. Solomon lived in Palestine: principal city, 
Jerusalem. 2. Naaman (2 Kings, chap, v) lived 
in Syria : principal city, Damascus, 136 miles from 
Jerusalem. 3. Jonah was ordered to go to Nine- 
vah: principal city of Assyria (Jonah, chap, i) 
Nineveh 550 miles north-east of Jerusalem. 4. 
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Chaldea. Reigned in 
Babylon, its principal city, 550 miles from Jerusa- 
lem. 5. Cyrus was king of the Medes and Per- 
sians. 6. The three letters P. P. P. stand for the 
three countries which lay along the eastern coast 
of the Mediterranean sea: Phoenicia, Palestine, 
and Philistia. 7. The location of the other three 
countries easily found on any map. 

II. DIRECTIONS TO TEACHEES. 

1. Review preceding study. If you can have a 
blackboard, both sides of which may be presented 
to the school, leave the first lesson on one side, and 
on the other write the second. 2. Repeat many 
times all these names, pointing to the countries as 
marked on the map. 

III. QUESTIONS FOE STUDY NO. ONE. 

1. Name the five persons referred to on the 
board. 2. The city in which Solomon lived? 

3. What other great characters lived in Jerusalem ? 

4. Who was Naaman ? 5. Where did he live ? 
6. How far from Jerusalem? 7. In what direc- 
tion? 8. Do you know any other celebrated 

8 



114 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 



Bible name connected with Damascus ? 9. Direc- 
tion and distance from Jerusalem of the principal 
city in Chaldea ? 10. Of the principal city in As- 
syria ? 11. Name the three countries on the east- 
ern shore of the Mediterranean sea? 12. What 
country south of Egypt? 13. West? 14. North 
of Libya ? 



PRINCIPAL BIBLE NATION: 
THE JEWS. 

1. Lands of their origin? Ar- 
menia and Mesopotamia. 

2. Bondage? Egypt. 

3. Wandering? Arabia. 

4. Possession? Canaan. 

5. Principal wars? Syria and 
Phihstia. 

6. Captivity? Assyria and 
Babylonia. 



PRINCIPAL BIBLE SYSTEM : 
CHRISTIANITY. 

1. Origin? Palestine. 

2. Preparation ? Syria and 
Arabia. 

3. Expansion ? Memorize Acts 
ii, 9-11, and Rom. x, 18. 



1. Arm. 2. Med. 3. Par. 4. Pers. 5. Chal. 6. Ara. 

T. Phil. 8. Meso. 9. Assyr. 10. Phen. 11. Syr. 12. Ca. 

13. Egy. 14. Lib. 15. Ethiop. 16. Sp. IT. It. 18. Gre. 

19. Armin. 



I. EXPLANATORY NOTES. 

1. The Bible-lands are here connected with the 
principal nation whose history the Bible records, 
and with the system which the Bible embodies 
and represents. 2. The nineteen abbreviations at 
the foot of the board contain the principal Bible- 
lands. 

II. DIRECTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

1. Point out every place on the map. 2. Connect 
with each land the names of persons as studied in 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 115 

the preceding lessons. 3. For a song or a chant 
by which children can readily learn these nineteen 
names, see "Little Footprints in Bible-lands," 
(pages 8 and 107,) sold by Carlton & Porter, 200 
Mulberry-street, New York. Price, 50 cents. 



m. 



QUESTIONS FOB STUDY NO. 

1. To what nation did Moses belong ? 



TWO. 

2. Solo- 
mon? 3. Jesus? 4. Paul? 5. From which of 
the three sons of Noah did they descend ? 6. 
Name lands of their origin ? 7. Bondage ? 8. 
Wandering ? 9. Possession ? 10. To what na- 
tion did Ben-hadad (2 Kings vi, 24) belong? 11. 
Goliath, the giant ? 12, By what nation were the 
Israelites taken captive? 13. The Jews. 14. Re- 
peat Acts ii, 9-11, and Rom. x, 18 ? 



A. Sacred Seas. 

Persons. Sea. 
Lo..l. Dead. 40. 8. 10. 
Mo.. 2. Red. 1400 S. A. 
Jo... 3. Great Med. 2300. 
Oh. .4. Galilee. 6. 12. G. T. 0. 



5. Adr. 6. JKge. *7. Blk. 

8. Casp. 9. Pers. 10. Mar. 

11. Merom. 



B. Sacred Rivers. 

Persona. River. Scripture, 

Ad...l. Eden.* Gen. ii, 10. 
Mo.... 2. Nile. Exod. ii, 3. 
Josh.. 3. Jordan. Josh. iii. 
Na. . .4. Damas.f 2 Kin. v, 12. 
Jews .5. Babyl'ihJ Ps.cxxxvii,L 



* Eden. P. G. H. E. 6. Kid. 
f Damascus. P. A. t. Arn. 

% Babylon. C. G. 8. Jab. 



I. EXPLANATORY NOTES. 



A. The Sacred Seas. 1. Dead Sea in the valley 
of the Jordan, where Lot settled. Gen. xiii, 10. 
This sea is forty miles long and from eight to ten 
wide. 2. The Red Sea, between Asia and Africa, 



116 OUE SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCKAP-BOOK. 

1400 miles long, with two arms, Akabah and Suez. 
It was across the Suez gulf, or arm of the Red Sea, 
Israel crossed under the leadership of Moses. 3. 
The Great Sea, or Mediterranean, 2300 miles long, 
on which Jonah sailed from Joppa for Tarshish. 
4. Sea of Galilee, which Christ visited and crossed 
so often. G. Gennesareth, T. Tiberias, C. Chinne- 
reth, are other names for this sea. It is twelve 
miles long and six wide. 5. Adr. Adriatic Sea, 
between Greece and Italy. 6. JEge. JEgean Sea, 
between Greece and Asia Minor. 7. Blk. Black 
Sea. 8. Casp. Caspian Sea. 9. Pers. Persian Gulf. 
10. Mar. Sea of Marmora. 11. Merom, or Lake 
Huleh, a little lakelet a few miles north of the Sea 
of Galilee, about two miles long and three or four 
broad. 

B. The Sacred Rivers. 1. The River of Eden 
with four heads, *P. G. H. E., Pison, Gihon, Hid- 
dekel or Tigris, and Euphrates. 2. The river of 
Egypt, that is, the Nile. 3. The Jordan, which 
Joshua crossed. 4. The rivers of Damascus, 
fPharpar and Abana, of which King Naaman 
spoke. 5. The rivers of Babylon, JChebar and 
Gozan, where the captive Jews mourned. 6. Kid- 
ron. 7. Arnon. 8. Jabbok. 

II. DIRECTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

1. There are two classes of lessons in this exer- 
cise. First, the five seas and the five rivers which 
are named in connection with persons. This class 
should be studied first. The second class, for the 

* f t See notes on preceding page. 



OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 117 

larger scholars, includes the remaining seas and 
rivers. 2. Point out every place on the map. 3. 
Repeat the name of the person, get from the class 
some account of him, and connect names of persons 
and places by very frequent repetition. 

HI. QUESTIONS FOR STUDY NO. THREE. 

1. Near what sea did Lot settle ? 2. What two 
cities once stood near this sea ? 3. How large is 
the Dead Sea ? 4. Through what sea did Moses 
lead Israel? 5. How long is the Red Sea? 6. 
What two gulfs or arms has it ? 7. Over which 
did Israel pass ? 8. What prophet was once 
thrown from a ship ? 9. In what direction was he 
sailing? 10. Why? 11. How long is the sea on 
which he sailed? 12. Give the several names and 
the size of the sea of Galilee ? 13. As the follow- 
ing names are called, give the river connected with 
the history of each one. Adam ? Moses ? Josh- 
ua? Naaman? The Jewish Captivity? 14. 
What were the four rivers of Eden ? 15. The two 
rivers of Damascus ? 16. The river of Babylon ? 



BIBLE GEOGRAPHY DJ SONG. 

The old plan of " singing geography " had its ad- 
vantages. It was, however, carried to extremes by 
most of its teachers. We do not entirely discard 
it. Difficult names may be easily rendered famil- 



118 OUR SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCRAP-BOOK. 

iar, the dullness of recitation may be dissipated, 
and a wholesome cheerfulness begotten in class 
and school by an occasional chant or song, weav- 
ing in measured lines the names of places occurring 
either in sacred or profane history. 

In a little volume* published by Carlton & Por- 
ter, a large number of these songs and chants are 
given. 

* " Little Footprints in Bible Lands." 



THE END, 



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Rudiments of Public Speaking 

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A close study of it will save the young public speakei from many 
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Our preachers will do well to send for it A clergyman of great intel- 
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Much of the religious biography of the day is both commonplace and 
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-♦♦- 



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choice Selections from six hundred Authors. Com 
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We have seen many dictionaries of quotations, but this surpasses thein all 
In extent and system. The subjects are those that come before the preacher's 
mind, and he will open this book as he is preparing a sermon, and find happy 
lines to adorn and enrich his discourse, and astonish his hearers by his famil- 
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Introduce him to authors whose acquaintance he would never have culti- 
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Pronouncing Bible. 

Large 8vo. 



"We have lately issued the best Bible in print, a Pbonouncing Bible, 
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that a child can pronounce them correctly. 2. Each book has a short in- 
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The method is more simple and easy than any other we have been. The 
pronunciation marks are very judiciously confined to the proper names, 
i 3aving the remainder of the text unencumbered. The multitudes of Bibia 
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very satisfactory relief by using this edition. For family worship, or private 
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"references," as far as we have had time to test them, are decidedly the 
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Kemarkable for depth of reasoning and tenderness. It must, by the 
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MATERNAL INSTRUCTIONS j 

Or, The History of Mrs. Murray and her Children. By William 
M'Gavin, Esq., Author of the Protestant. 18mo. 



THE LIFE OF ST. PAUL. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 

THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM: 

Abridged from the History of the Jewish Wars, by Flavius 
Josephus. With a Description of Palestine, and brief Sketch 
of the History of Jerusalem before the War ; together with an 
Epitome of its Modern History, the whole being intended to 
illustrate the Fulfillment of the Predictions of Moses and the 
Messiah. By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 



WESLEYAN CENTENARY: 

Extracted from 
Thomas Jack- 
son. 18mo. 



A Memorial of the Wesleyan Centenary. E: 
" The Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism." By 



GRACE KING j 

Or, Recollections of Events in the Life and Death of a Pious 
Youth : with Extracts from her Diary. Published for the benefit 
of Youth. Three Hlustrations. I8mo. 

LOVE TO THE SAVIOUR. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF ST. PETER. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 



BOOKS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 



200 Mulberry-street^ IVew York. 



FILIAL DUTY 

Recommended and Enforced, by a variety of Instructive and 
Amusing Narratives of Children who have been Remarkable 
for Affection to their Parents ; also, an Account of some Strik- 
ing Instances of Children who have been guilty of Cruel and 
Unnatural Conduct to their Parents. Five Illustrations. 18mo. 

SOUTH SEA MISSIONS. 

Conversations on the South Sea Missions. By the Author 
of " Conversations on the Life of Carey." Illustrated. Two 
volumes, 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF DAVID. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 

IDLE DICK AND THE POOR WATCHMAKER. 

Originally written in French, by Rev. Gsisar Malak, of 
Geneva. With Illustrations. 18mo. 

THE FEATHER AND SONG BIRD. 

Illustrated. 18mo. 

THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST: 

With Explanatory Observations, and Illustrations from Modern 
Travels. Intended for the Young. Six Illustrations. 18mo. 

THE FLY AND HONEY BEE. 

Illustrated. 18mo. 

THE NEST AND EGG. 

Illustrated. 18mo. 

SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS: 

Letters on the Distinguishing Excellences of Remarkable Scrip- 
ture Personages. By Rev. Robert Huston. 18mo. 

fHE ANIMALCULE AND GALL INSECT. 

Illustrated. 18mo. 

THE FORTY-TWO CHILDREN AT MT. BETHEL. 

By a Sabbath-School Teacher. 18mo. 

THE ANT AND SPIDER. 

Illustrated. 18mo. 
10 



BOOKS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 



200 Mulberry-street, IVew York. 



LIFE OF REV. RICHARD WATSON, 

Author of Theological Institutes, Dictionary, Exposition of the 
Gospels, etc. By Stephen B. Wickens. 18mo. 

SERIOUS ADVICE 

Fr«m a Father to his Children. Recommended to Parents, 
Guardians, Governors of Seminaries, and to Teachers of Sunday 
Schools. By Charles Atmoee. 18mo. 

A VOICE FROM THE SABBATH SCHOOL: 

A brief Memoir of Emily Andrews. By Rev. Daniel Smith. 
18mo. 

LITTLE JAMES; 

Or, The Story of a Good Boy's Life and Death. John Reinhard 
Hedinguer ; or, the Faithful Chaplain : being an Account of an 
extraordinarily Pious and Devoted Minister of Christ. 18mo. 

MEMOIR OF ELIZABETH JONES, 

A Little Indian Girl, who lived at the River-Credit Mission, 
Upper Canada. Three Illustrations. 18mo. 

JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE. 

Rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple ; or, The Lives of 
Ezra and Nehemiah. By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 

THE TRAVELER; 

Or, A Description of Various Wonders in Nature and Art. Il- 
lustrated. 18mo. 

MEMOIRS OF JOHN FREDERIC OBERLIN, 

Pastor of Waldbach, in the Ban De La Roche. 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

First President of the United States. By S. G. Arnold, Author 
of "Memoirs of Hannah More." Three Illustrations. 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF DANIEL. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. Two Illustrations. ISmo. 

THE LIFE OF MOSES. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. Illustrated. 18mo. 



BOOKS FO R SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 

200 Mulberry-street, New York. 



LIFE OF ADAM CLARKE. 

An Account of the Religious and Literary Life of Rev. Adam 
Clarke, LL.D. 18mo. 

LIFE OF MRS. COKE. 

Memoir of Mrs. Penelope Goulding Coke, by her Husband, the 
late Rev. Dr. Coke. 18mo. 

LIFE OF JOSEPH COWLEY. 

Sketch of the Life and Character of the late Mr. Joseph Cowley, 
Superintendent of Red Hill Sunday School, and Senior Secre- 
tary of the Sunday School Union, Sheffield. By John Holland, 
Author of the Life of Summerfield. 18mo. 

A VOYAGE TO CEYLON: 

With Notices of the Wesleyan Mission on that Island. By a 
Surgeon. 18mo. 

THE CEYLONESE CONVERTS: 

Brief Memoirs of Frederic Hesler and Donna Wilmina, with In- 
teresting Notices of others in the Ceylon Schools. By Robebt 
Newstead. 18mo. 

WANDERINGS AND ADVENTUBFS. 

Steedman's Wanderings and Adventures in the Interior of 
Southern Africa. Abridged by Rev. Daneex Smith. 18mo. 

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ORATOR: 

Being a Collection of Pieces, original and sfle^ted, both in 
Prose and Verse, for Sabbath-School Anniversaries By Georgi 
Coles. 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF ELISHA. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. Two Illustrations. 18m< 

LIFE OF SOLOMON, KING OF ISRAEL i 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. Four Illustrations. 18mo. 

THE HISTORY OF SARAH BREWER, 

A Poor Orphan. Four Illustrations. 18mo. 

THE SOLDIER'S FUNERAL. 

Hlustrated. 18mo. 
6 



ROOKS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS 



200 Mulberry-street, New York. 



LECTURES TO CHILDREN. 

By the Assistant Editor of the "Christian Advocate and 
Journal," etc. Illustrated. 18mo. 

LIFE OF LADY FALKLAND. 

The Grace of God Manifested in the Life and Death of Lady 
Letice Viscountess Falkland. 18mo. 

THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A MINISTER; 

Or, Sketches drawn from Life and Character. By Rev. J. T. 
Baku. 18mo. 

CHOICE PLEASURES FOR YOUTH : 

Recommended in a Series of Letters from a Father to his Son. 
18mo. 

MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE : 

With brief Notices of her Works, Cotemporaries, etc. By S. GL 
Aknold. 18mo. 

THEOBALD, THE IRON HEARTED ; 

Or, Love to Enemies. From the French of Rev. Cesar Malah. 
18mo. 

THE DAY-LAMP OF LIFE. 

Two Illustrations. 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF ESTHER. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 

THE THEOLOGICAL COMPEND : 

Containing a System of Divinity, or a brief View of the Evi- 
dences, Doctrines, Morals, and Institutions of Christianity. 
Designed for the benefit of Families, Bible Classes, and Sunday 
Schools. By Amos Binney. 18mo. 

LIFE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF JONAH. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. Two Illustrations. 18rao. 

THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 



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